misconceptions about the tuskegee airmen about the tuskegee...1 misconceptions about the tuskegee...
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MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN
Dr. Daniel L. Haulman Air Force Historical Research Agency
22 October 2015
By May 1947, Colonel Noel F. Parrish was a student at the Air Command and
Staff School at Maxwell Air Force Base, after having served as commander of the basic
and advanced flying school at Tuskegee Army Air Field, and commander of that station,
for about five years. During that time, he had become an enemy of racial segregation
within the Army Air Forces, and he wrote a thesis to explain why. A quote from that
thesis is instructive: “Each establishment of a ‘Negro unit’ project was finally covered
with a smoke screen of praise which clouded the issues and obscured the facts.”1 In
another part of the same thesis, Parrish noted that the black units “gathered more than
necessary praise,” and that “military men showed an overwhelming tendency to believe,
repeat, and exaggerate all the stories.” He commented, “Such a situation [segregation]
leads to an exaggeration of both the honors and the defamations.” Philosophically, he
wrote, “When it is difficult to tell which praise is merited, it is certainly difficult to
determine what blame is deserved.”2 Having been deeply involved in the training of
Tuskegee Airmen pilots, and having kept up with their performance during World War II,
Parrish was aware that there were some misconceptions regarding what they did and did
not actually accomplish. He was unquestionably supporting of their success, but he
opposed segregation, preferring that blacks be integrated into the Army Air Forces
without so much concern about race or what one race did as opposed to another.
The members of the 332d Fighter Group and the 99th, 100th, 301st, and 302d
Fighter Squadrons during World War II are remembered in part because they were the
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only African-American pilots who served in combat with the United States armed forces
during World War II. Because they trained at Tuskegee Army Air Field before and
during the war, they are sometimes called the Tuskegee Airmen. In the more than sixty
years since World War II, several stories have grown up about the Tuskegee Airmen,
some of them true and some of them false. This paper focuses on forty-three
misconceptions about the Tuskegee Airmen that, in light of the historical documentation
available at the Air Force Historical Research Agency, and sources at the Air University
Library, are not accurate. That documentation includes monthly histories of the 99th
Fighter Squadron, the 332d Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group, the 332d
Fighter Group’s daily narrative mission reports, orders issued by the Twelfth and
Fifteenth Air Forces, Fifteenth Air Force mission folders, missing air crew reports,
histories of Tuskegee Army Air Field, and other documents.
I will address each of the following forty-three misconceptions separately:
1. The misconception of inferiority
2. The misconception of “never lost a bomber”
3. The misconception of the deprived ace
4. The misconception of being first to shoot down German jets
5. The misconception that the Tuskegee Airmen sank a German destroyer
6. The misconception of the “Great Train Robbery”
7. The misconception of Superiority
8. The misconception that the Tuskegee Airmen units were all black
9. The misconception that all Tuskegee Airmen were fighter pilots who flew red-tailed
P-51s to escort bombers
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10. The misconception that after a flight with a black pilot at Tuskegee, Eleanor
Roosevelt persuaded the President to establish a black flying unit in the Army Air Corps
11. The misconception that the Tuskegee Airmen earned 150 Distinguished Flying
Crosses during World War II
12. The misconception that the Tuskegee Airmen were the first to implement a “stick
with the bombers” policy
13. The misconception that the 332nd Fighter Group was the only one to escort Fifteenth
Air Force bombers over Berlin
14. The misconception that the 99th Fighter Squadron, unlike the white fighter squadrons
with which it served, at first flew obsolete P-40 airplanes
15. The misconception that the training of black pilots for combat was an experiment
designed to fail.
16. The misconception of the hidden trophy
17. The misconception that the outstanding World War II record of the Tuskegee Airmen
alone convinced President Truman to desegregate the armed forces of the United States
18. The misconception that 332nd Fighter Group was the only group to paint the tails of
its fighters a distinctive color, to distinguish them from the fighters of the other fighter
escort groups
19. The misconception that all black military pilot training during World War II took
place at Tuskegee Institute
20. The misconception that the Tuskegee Airmen were the only fighter pilots following
the official policy of “sticking with the bombers”
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21. The misconception that the Tuskegee Airmen’s 332nd Fighter Group flew more
different kinds of aircraft in combat than any other Army Air Forces group during World
War II
22. The misconception that the Tuskegee Airmen belonged to some of the most highly
decorated units in U.S. military history
23. The misconception that the Tuskegee Airmen never got the recognition they
deserved
24. The misconception that Tuskegee Airman Charles McGee flew more combat
missions than any other pilot in the Air Force
25. The misconception that all U.S. black military pilots during World War II were
Tuskegee Airmen in the Army Air Forces
26. The misconception that Daniel “Chappie” James, the first four-star black general in
the U.S. military services, was among the leaders of the “Freeman Field Mutiny” in April
1945
27. The misconception that the Tuskegee Airmen’s 332nd Fighter Group flew more
combat missions than any other unit in Europe during World War II
28. The misconception that Col. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., by ordering his pilots to “stick
with the bombers,” put his pilots in greater danger than the white pilots, and gave them
less opportunity to become aces
29. The misconception that Charles Alfred “Chief” Anderson taught himself how to fly
30. The misconception that Congress passed a law to create the first black flying unit
31. The misconception that black organizations and black newspapers all supported the
training of black pilots at Tuskegee
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32. The misconception that most of the flying instructors of the Tuskegee Airmen were
black.
33. The misconception that Moton Field, location of the Tuskegee Airmen National
Historic Site, was Tuskegee Army Air Field, where most black flying training took place
during World War II
34. The misconception that the Tuskegee Airmen won the 1949 USAF gunnery meet in
Las Vegas, defeating all other fighter groups in the Air Force
35. The misconception that Tuskegee Airman Daniel “Chappie” James was an ace
36. The misconception that Tuskegee Airman Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. graduated top in
his class at the United States Military Academy at West Point
37. The misconception that there were “second-generation Tuskegee Airmen”
38. The misconception that each of the Tuskegee Airmen was awarded a Congressional
Gold Medal, or that they were each awarded the Medal of Honor
39. The misconception that when the Tuskegee Airmen returned to the United States
after combat overseas, no one welcomed them
40. The misconception that the Tuskegee Airmen were instrumental in the defeat of
German forces in North Africa.
41. The misconception that all black personnel in the Army Air Forces during World
War II were Tuskegee Airmen.
42. The misconception that Tuskegee Airman Leo Gray flew the last mission in Europe
during World War II.
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43. The misconception that all black officers at Freeman Field, Indiana, in April 1945,
refused to sign a new base regulation requiring segregated officers clubs, and were
arrested as a result.
1. THE MISCONCEPTION OF INFERIORITY
The first misconception regarding the Tuskegee Airmen was that they were
inferior. The myth was that black men were inferior to white men, and lacked the ability
to perform certain tasks, such as flying a fighter effectively in combat.
The airplane was invented in 1903, and the military acquired its first airplanes and
pilots in 1909, but black men were not allowed to be pilots in the American military until
the 1940s. During World War I, there were no black pilots in the American military. In
October, 1925, the War College of the U.S. Army issued a memorandum entitled, “The
Use of Negro Manpower in War,” which reflected the racial prejudice of white army
leaders of the time. It claimed that Negroes were inferior to whites and encouraged
continued segregation within the Army. It recommended that blacks be allowed to do
certain menial tasks, but not others that would require more intelligence.3
In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt directed the War Department to begin
training black pilots, which the Army Air Corps reluctantly began to do, but only on a
segregated basis. The first class of black pilots in the U.S. military graduated in March
1942, and they were assigned to the 99th Fighter Squadron, the first black flying unit in
American history. A little over a year later, the 99th Fighter Squadron finally was
allowed to deploy overseas for combat, but only while attached to white fighter groups.
One of those white fighter groups was the 33rd. Its commander, Colonel William
Momyer, did not want a black squadron attached to his group, and became convinced that
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it should be taken out of combat because of poor performance. In September 1943,
Momyer sent his recommendation to Major General Edwin J. House, commander of the
XII Air Support Command, who forwarded them to Major General John K. Cannon,
Deputy Commander of the Northwest African Tactical Air Force.4
The so-called “House memorandum,” went up the chain of command all the way
to the headquarters of the Army Air Forces. In response the War Department conducted
an official study to compare the performance of the 99th Fighter Squadron with that of
other P-40 units in the Twelfth Air Force. The subsequent report, released on March 30,
1944, concluded that the 99th Fighter Squadron had performed as well as the white P-40
squadrons with which it flew in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations. The 99th
Fighter Squadron was allowed to stay in combat, although it was attached to another
white fighter group.5
In the meantime, the 332nd Fighter Group, the first black flying group, and its
three squadrons, the 100th, 301st, and 302nd Fighter Squadrons, deployed to Italy for
combat duty. In the summer of 1944, the 332nd Fighter Group began a new mission of
escorting heavy bombers for the Fifteenth Air Force, and the 99th Fighter Squadron was
assigned to it. For the bomber escort mission, the Tuskegee Airmen began flying red-
tailed P-51 Mustang airplanes, the best fighter aircraft type in the Army Air Forces.
Their range and speed allowed them to protect the bombers against enemy fighters.
During its combat with the Fifteenth Air Force, the 332nd Fighter Group was one
of seven fighter escort groups, four that flew P-51s and three that flew P-38s. During the
period from June 1944 to the end of April 1945, the 332nd Fighter Group shot down more
enemy airplanes than two of the other groups, both of which flew P-38s. In other words,
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the Tuskegee Airmen shot down more enemy airplanes than two of the white fighter
escort groups in the same period, but the fewest enemy airplanes compared to the other
three P-51 units.6
It is possible that the Tuskegee Airmen shot down fewer enemy aircraft than the
other P-51 fighter groups, and had no aces with five aerial victory credits, because they
were staying closer to the bombers they were escorting. The total number of Fifteenth
Air Force bombers shot down by enemy aircraft between June 1944 and May 1945, when
the 332nd Fighter Group was assigned to the Fifteenth Air Force, was 303. The total
number of 332nd Fighter Group-escorted bombers shot down by enemy aircraft was 27.
Subtracting 27 bombers from the 303 total shot down by enemy aircraft leaves 276
bombers shot down by enemy aircraft while under the escort of one or more of the other
six fighter groups in the Fifteenth Air Force. Dividing 276 by six, one finds that 46 is the
average number of bombers shot down by enemy aircraft when those bombers were
under the escort of one of the other fighter groups. The Tuskegee Airmen lost only 27,
significantly fewer bombers than the average number lost by the other fighter groups in
the Fifteenth Air Force. In other words, the Tuskegee Airmen lost significantly fewer
bombers to enemy airplanes than average of the other fighter groups.7 In terms of
numbers of enemy aircraft shot down, the Tuskegee Airmen record was worse than that
of the other P-51 groups in the same period, but in terms of the number of bombers that
returned safely under their protection, the Tuskegee Airmen record was better.
TABLE I: FIGHTER GROUPS OF THE FIFTEENTH AIR FORCE IN WORLD WAR II Organization Total aerial victories June
1944-April 1945 1st Fighter Group 72
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14th Fighter Group 85 31st Fighter Group 278 52d Fighter Group 224.5 82d Fighter Group 106 325th Fighter Group 252 332d Fighter Group 94 Sources: USAF Historical Study No. 85, “USAF Credits for the Destruction of Enemy Aircraft, World War II” (Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1978);; Maurer Maurer, Air Force Combat Units of World War II (Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1983). TABLE II: FIFTEENTH AIR FORCE HEAVY BOMBERS LOST, JUNE 1944-MAY 1945 (WHEN 332ND FIGHTER GROUP ASSIGNED TO FIFTEENTH AIR FORCE)
Month Year Number of Heavy Bombers Lost to Enemy Aircraft
June 1944 85 July 1944 94
August 1944 91 September 1944 7
October 1944 0 November 1944 1 December 1944 18
January 1945 0 February 1945 0 March 1945 7 April 1945 0 May 1945 0
TOTAL June 1944-April 1945
303
Source: Army Air Forces Statistical Digest for World War II, 1946 (Washington, DC: Statistical Control Division, Office of Air Comptroller, June 1947) p. 256 Table 160 2. THE MISCONCEPTION OF “NEVER LOST A BOMBER”
Another misconception that developed during the last months of the war is the
story that no bomber under escort by the Tuskegee Airmen was ever shot down by enemy
aircraft. A version of this misconception appears in Alan Gropman’s book, The Air
Force Integrates (Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1985), p. 14: “Their
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record on escort duty remained unparalleled. They never lost an American bomber to
enemy aircraft.” This misconception originated even before the end of World War II, in
the press. A version of the statement first appeared in a March 10, 1945 issue of Liberty
Magazine, in an article by Roi Ottley, who claimed that the black pilots had not lost a
bomber they escorted to enemy aircraft in more than 100 missions. The 332d Fighter
Group had by then flown more than 200 missions. Two weeks after the Ottley article, on
March 24, 1945, another article appeared in the Chicago Defender, claiming that in more
than 200 missions, the group had not lost a bomber they escorted to enemy aircraft. In
reality, bombers under Tuskegee Airmen escort were shot down on seven different days:
June 9, 1944; June 13, 1944; July 12, 1944; July 18, 1944; July 20, 1944; August 24,
1944; and March 24, 1945.8 Moreover, the Tuskegee Airmen flew 311 missions for the
Fifteenth Air Force between early June 1944 and late April 1945, and only 179 of those
missions escorted bombers.
Alan Gropman interviewed General Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., years after World
War II, and specifically asked him if the “never lost a bomber” statement were true.
General Davis replied that he questioned the statement, but that it had been repeated so
many times people were coming to believe it (AFHRA call number K239.0512-1922). 9
Davis himself must have known the statement was not true, because his own citation for
the Distinguished Flying Cross, contained in Fifteenth Air Force General Order 2972
dated 31 August 1944, noted that on June 9, 1944,“Colonel Davis so skillfully disposed
his squadrons that in spite of the large number of enemy fighters, the bomber formation
suffered only a few losses.”10
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In order to determine whether or not bombers under the escort of the Tuskegee
Airmen were ever shot down by enemy aircraft during World War II, I practiced the
following method.
First, I determined which bombardment wing the Tuskegee Airmen were
escorting on a given day, and when and where that escort took place. I found this
information in the daily narrative mission reports of the 332d Fighter Group, which are
filed with the group’s monthly histories from World War II. The call number for these
documents at the Air Force Historical Research Agency is GP-332-HI followed by the
month and year.
Next, I determined which bombardment groups were in the bombardment wing
that the Tuskegee Airmen were escorting on the day in question. I found this information
in the daily mission folders of the Fifteenth Air Force. The Fifteenth Air Force daily
mission folders also contain narrative mission reports for all the groups that took part in
missions on any given day, including reports of both the fighter and bombardment
groups, as well as the wings to which they belonged. The call number for these
documents at the Air Force Historical Research Agency is 670.332 followed by the date.
The bombardment group daily mission reports show which days bombers of the group
were shot down by enemy aircraft.
Next, I checked the index of the Missing Air Crew Reports, to see if the groups
that the Tuskegee Airmen were escorting that day lost any aircraft. If any aircraft of
those groups were lost that day, I recorded the missing air crew report numbers. This
index of Missing Air Crew Reports is located in the archives branch of the Air Force
Historical Research Agency. The Missing Air Crew Reports usually confirmed the
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bomber loss information contained in the bombardment group daily narrative mission
reports.
Finally, I looked at the individual Missing Air Crew Reports of the Tuskegee
Airmen-escorted groups that lost airplanes on that day to see when the airplanes were
lost, where the airplanes were lost, and whether the airplanes were lost because of enemy
aircraft fire, enemy antiaircraft fire, or some other cause. The Missing Air Crew Reports
note that information for each aircraft lost, with the aircraft type and serial number, and
usually also contain witness statements that describe the loss. For lost bombers, the
witnesses were usually the crew members of other bombers in the same formation, or
members of the crews of the lost bombers themselves, after they returned. The Missing
Air Crew Reports are filed on microfiche in the archives branch of the Air Force
Historical Research Agency.
Using this procedure, I determined conclusively that on at least seven days,
bombers under the escort of the Tuskegee Airmen’s 332d Fighter Group were shot down
by enemy aircraft. Those days include June 9, 1944; June 13, 1944; July 12, 1944; July
18, 1944; July 20, 1944; August 24, 1944; and March 24, 1945.11
TABLE III: BOMBERS SHOT DOWN BY ENEMY AIRCRAFT WHILE FLYING
IN GROUPS THE 332D FIGHTER GROUP WAS ASSIGNED TO ESCORT
DATE TIME LOCATION TYPE SERIAL NUMBER
WG
GP MACR
9 June 1944 0905 46 40 N, 12 40 E B-24 42-78219 304 459 6317 9 June 1944 0907 46 00 N, 12 40 E B-24 42-52318 304 459 6179
13 June 1944
0900 Porogruardo, Italy
B-24 42-94741 49 484 6097
12 July 1944
1050 20 miles SE of Mirabeau,
France
B-24 42-52723 49 461 6894
12 July 1051 10 miles E of B-24 42-78202 49 461 6895
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1944 Mirabeau, France
12 July 1944
1105 43 43 N, 05 23 E B-24 42-78291 49 461 7034
18 July 1944
1045-1100 near Memmingen
B-17 42-107179 5 483 6856
18 July 1944
1045-1100 near Memmingen
B-17 42-107008 5 483 6953
18 July 1944
1045-1100 near Memmingen
B-17 42-102862 5 483 6954
18 July 1944
1045-1100 near Memmingen
B-17 44-6174 5 483 6975
18 July 1944
1045-1100 near Memmingen
B-17 42-97671 5 483 6976
18 July 1944
1045-1100 near Memmingen
B-17 42-102382 5 483 6977
18 July 1944
1045-1100 near Memmingen
B-17 42-107170 5 483 6978
18 July 1944
1045-1100 near Memmingen
B-17 42-102923 5 483 6979
18 July 1944
1045-1100 near Memmingen
B-17 42-102927 5 483 6980
18 July 1944
1045-1100 near Memmingen
B-17 42-97584 5 483 6981
18 July 1944
1045-1100 near Memmingen
B-17 42-46267 5 483 7097
18 July 1944
1045-1100 near Memmingen
B-17 42-102422 5 483 7098
18 July 1944
1045-1100 near Memmingen
B-17 44-6177 5 483 7099
18 July 1944
1045-1100 near Memmingen
B-17 42-107172 5 483 7153
18 July 1944
1104 47 54 N, 10 40 E B-17 42-102943 5 301 7310
20 Jul 1944 1000 45 38 N, 12 28 E B-24 44-40886 55 485 6914 20 Jul 1944 0954 45 38 N, 12 28 E B-24 42-78361 55 485 6919
24 Aug 1944
1245-1247 49 28 N, 15 25 E B-17 42-31645 5 97 7971
24 Mar 1945
1200 52 05 N, 13 10 E B-17 44-6283 5 463 13278
24 Mar 1945
1208 51 00 N, 13 10 E B-17 44-6761 5 463 13274
24 Mar 1945
1227 Berlin target area
B-17 44-8159 5 463 13375
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Primary Sources: Daily mission reports of the 332d Fighter Group (Air Force Historical Research Agency call number GP-332-HI); Daily mission reports of the bombardment groups the 332d Fighter Group was assigned to escort per day, from the daily mission folders of the Fifteenth Air Force (Air Force Historical Research Agency call number 670.332); Microfiche of Missing Air Crew Reports (MACRs) at the Air Force Historical Research Agency, indexed by date and group. 3. THE MISCONCEPTION OF THE DEPRIVED ACE
Another popular misconception that circulated after World War II is that white
officers were determined to prevent any black man in the Army Air Forces from
becoming an ace, and therefore reduced the aerial victory credit total of Lee Archer from
five to less than five to accomplish their aim. A version of this misconception appears in
the Oliver North compilation, War Stories III ((Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing,
Inc., 2005), p. 152, in which Lee Archer is quoted as saying “I figure somebody up the
line just wasn’t ready for a black guy to be an ace.” In the same source, Archer claimed
that one of his five victories was reduced to a half, and no one knew who got the other
half.12 Another version of the story is contained in an interview of Lee Archer by Dr.
Lisa Bratton conducted on 13 Mar 2001 in New York, NY. Archer claimed that he shot
down five enemy airplanes, without specifying the dates, and that one of his victories was
cut in half and given to another pilot named Freddie Hutchins, leaving him with 4.5. He
also claimed, in the same interview, that the American Fighter Aces Association honored
him, implying that the association had named him an ace at last.13
In reality, according to the World War II records of the 332d Fighter Group and
its squadrons, which were very carefully kept by members of the group, Lee Archer
claimed a total of four aerial victories during World War II, and received credit for every
claim.14 Moreover, there is no evidence that Lt. Freddie Hutchins earned any half credit,
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with the other half credit going to Archer. In fact, Hutchins earned a full credit for
shooting down an enemy aircraft on July 26, 1944. The mission report for that day,
which lists all the claims from the mission, does not list Archer.15 The order that awarded
the credit to Hutchins on July 26 was issued on August 6, 1944, and it was the same order
that awarded a credit to Archer for 18 July 1944.16
The misconception that Lee Archer was an ace was perpetuated in part because of
an excerpt in the book The Tuskegee Airmen (Boston: Bruce Humphries, Inc., 1955), by
Charles E. Francis. In that book, Francis mentions an aerial victory for July 20, 1944,
but the history of the 332d Fighter Group for July 1944, the mission report of the 332d
Fighter Group for July 20, 1944, and the aerial victory credit orders issued by the
Fifteenth Air Force in 1944 do not support Francis’ claim. The documents show that Lee
Archer did not claim to have shot down an enemy aircraft that day, and did not receive
credit for such a claim, either.17
World War II documents, including monthly histories of the 332d Fighter Group
and Twelfth and Fifteenth Air Force general orders awarding aerial victory credits show
that Lee Archer claimed and was awarded a total of four aerial victory credits during
World War II, one on July 18, 1944, and three on October 12, 1944. There is no
evidence among these documents that Lee Archer ever claimed any more than four
enemy aircraft destroyed in the air during the war, and he was never awarded any more
than four. A fifth was never taken away or downgraded to half. Moreover, there is no
evidence, among the documents, that there was any effort to prevent any members of the
332d Fighter Group from becoming an ace. If someone had reduced one of his July
credits to a half, or taken it away entirely, that person would have had no way of knowing
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that Archer would get credit for three more aircraft months later, in October, and
approach ace status. When claims were made, they were recorded and evaluated by a
victory credit board that decided, using witness statements and gun camera film, whether
to award credits, which were confirmed by general orders of the Fifteenth Air Force.
There is no evidence that the black claims were treated any differently than the white
claims. If there had been such discrimination in the evaluation of claims, Colonel
Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., the leader of the group would have most likely complained, and
there is no evidence of any such complaint. To think that someone or some group was
totaling the number of aerial victory credits of each of the members of the various
squadrons of the 332d Fighter Group and intervening to deny credit to anyone who might
become an ace is not consistent with the aerial victory credit procedures of the day.
TABLE IV. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF 332D FIGHTER GROUP AERIAL VICTORY CREDITS
Date Name Unit Downed GO # 2 Jul 1943 1 Lt Charles B. Hall 99 FS 1 FW-190 32 XII ASC 7 Sep 43 27 Jan 1944 2 Lt Clarence W. Allen 99 FS 0.5 FW-190 66 XII AF 24 May 44 1 Lt Willie Ashley Jr. 99 FS 1 FW-190 122 XII AF 7 Aug 44 2 Lt Charles P. Bailey 99 FS 1 FW-190 66 XII AF 24 May 44 1 Lt Howard Baugh 99 FS 1 FW-190
0.5 FW-190 122 XII AF 7 Aug 44 66 XII AF 24 May 44
Cpt Lemuel R. Custis 99 FS 1 FW-190 122 XII AF 7 Aug 44 1 Lt Robert W. Deiz 99 FS 1 FW-190 66 XII AF 24 May 44 2 Lt Wilson V. Eagleson 99 FS 1 FW-190 66 XII AF 24 May 44 1 Lt Leon C. Roberts 99 FS 1 FW-190 122 XII AF 7 Aug 44 2 Lt Lewis C. Smith 99 FS 1 FW-190 66 XII AF 24 May 44 1 Lt Edward L. Toppins 99 FS 1 FW-190 81 XII AF 22 Jun 44 28 Jan 1944 1 Lt Robert W. Deiz 99 FS 1 FW-190 122 XII AF 7 Aug 44 Cpt Charles B. Hall 99 FS 1 FW-190
1 ME-109 64 XII AF 22 May 44
5 Feb 1944 1 Lt Elwood T. Driver 99 FS 1 FW-190 66 XII AF 24 May 44 7 Feb 1944 2 Lt Wilson V. Eagleson 99 FS 1 FW-190 122 XII AF 7 Aug 44 2 Lt Leonard M. Jackson 99 FS 1 FW-190 66 XII AF 24 May 44 1 Lt Clinton B. Mills 99 FS 1 FW-190 66 XII AF 24 May 44 9 Jun 1944 1 Lt Charles M. Bussy 302 FS 1 ME-109 1473 XV AF 30 Jun 44
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2 Lt Frederick D. Funderburg
301 FS 2 ME-109s 1473 XV AF 30 Jun 44
1 Lt Melvin T. Jackson 302 FS 1 ME-109 1473 XV AF 30 Jun 44 1 Lt Wendell O. Pruitt 302 FS 1 ME-109 1473 XV AF 30 Jun 44 12 Jul 1944 1 Lt Harold E. Sawyer 301 FS 1 FW-190 2032 XV AF 23 Jul 44 1 Lt Joseph D. Elsberry 301 FS 3 FW-190 2466 XV AF Aug 44 16 Jul 1944 1 Lt Alfonza W. Davis 332 FG 1 MA-205 2030 XV AF 23 Jul 44 2 Lt William W. Green Jr 302 FS 1 MA-202 2029 XV AF 23 Jul 44 17 Jul 1944 1 Lt Luther H. Smith Jr. 302 FS 1 ME-109 2350 XV AF 6 Aug 44 2 Lt Robert H. Smith 302 FS 1 ME-109 2350 XV AF 6 Aug 44 1 Lt Laurence D. Wilkins 302 FS 1 ME-109 2350 XV AF 6 Aug 44 18 Jul 1944 2 Lt Lee A. Archer 302 FS 1 ME-109 2350 XV AF 6 Aug 44 1 Lt Charles P. Bailey 99 FS 1 FW-190 2484 XV AF 11 Aug 44 1 Lt Weldon K. Groves 302 FS 1 ME-109 2350 XV AF 6 Aug 44 18 Jul 1944 1 Lt Jack D. Holsclaw 100 FS 2 ME-109s 2202 XV AF 31 Jul 44 2 Lt Clarence D. Lester 100 FS 3 ME-109s 2202 XV AF 31 Jul 44 2 Lt Walter J. A. Palmer 100 FS 1 ME-109 2202 XV AF 31 Jul 44 2 Lt Roger Romine 302 FS 1 ME-109 2350 XV AF 6 Aug 44 Cpt Edward L. Toppins 99 FS 1 FW-190 2484 XV AF 11 Aug 44* 2 Lt Hugh S. Warner 302 FS 1 ME-109 2350 XV AF 6 Aug 44 20 Jul 1944 Cpt Joseph D. Elsberry 301 FS 1 ME-109 2284 XV AF 3 Aug 44 1 Lt Langdon E. Johnson 100 FS 1 ME-109 2202 XV AF 31 Jul 44 Cpt Armour G. McDaniel 301 FS 1 ME-109 2284 XV AF 3 Aug 44 Cpt Edward L. Toppins 99 FS 1 ME-109 2484 XV AF 11 Aug 44 25 Jul 1944 1 Lt Harold E. Sawyer 301 FS 1 ME-109 2284 XV AF 3 Aug 44 26 Jul 1944 1 Lt Freddie E. Hutchins 302 FS 1 ME-109 2350 XV AF 6 Aug 44 1 Lt Leonard M. Jackson 99 FS 1 ME-109 2484 XV AF 11 Aug 44 2 Lt Roger Romine 302 FS 1 ME-109 2350 XV AF 6 Aug 44 Cpt Edward L. Toppins 99 FS 1 ME-109 2484 XV AF 11 Aug 44 27 Jul 1944 1 Lt Edward C. Gleed 301 FS 2 FW-190s 2284 XV AF 3 Aug 44 2 Lt Alfred M. Gorham 301 FS 2 FW-190s 2284 XV AF 3 Aug 44 Cpt Claude B. Govan 301 FS 1 ME-109 2284 XV AF 3 Aug 44 2 Lt Richard W. Hall 100 FS 1 ME-109 2485 XV AF 11 Aug 44 1 Lt Leonard M. Jackson 99 FS 1 ME-109 2484 XV AF 11 Aug 44 1 Lt Felix J. Kirkpatrick 302 FS 1 ME-109 2350 XV AF 6 Aug 44 30 Jul 1944 2 Lt Carl E. Johnson 100 FS 1 RE-2001 2485 XV AF 11 Aug 44 14 Aug 1944 2 Lt George M. Rhodes Jr. 100 FS 1 FW-190 2831 XV AF 25 Aug 44 23 Aug 1944 FO William L. Hill 302 FS 1 ME-109 3538 XV AF 21 Sep 44 24 Aug 1944 1 Lt John F. Briggs 100 FS 1 ME-109 3153 XV AF 6 Sep 44 1 Lt Charles E. McGee 302 FS 1 FW-190 3174 XV AF 7 Sep 44 1 Lt William H. Thomas 302 FS 1 FW-190 449 XV AF 31 Jan 45 12 Oct 1944 1 Lt Lee A. Archer 302 FS 3 ME-109s 4287 XV AF 1 Nov 44 Cpt Milton R. Brooks 302 FS 1 ME-109 4287 XV AF 1 Nov 44 1 Lt William W. Green Jr. 302 FS 1 HE-111 4287 XV AF 1 Nov 44 Cpt Wendell O. Pruitt 302 FS 1 HE-111 4287 XV AF 1 Nov 44
18
1 ME-109 1 Lt Roger Romine 302 FS 1 ME-109 4287 XV AF 1 Nov 44 1 Lt Luther H. Smith Jr. 302 FS 1 HE-111 4604 XV AF 21 Nov 44 16 Nov 1944 Cpt Luke J. Weathers 302 FS 2 ME-109s 4990 XV AF 13 Dec 44 16 Mar 1945 1 Lt William S. Price III 301 FS 1 ME-109 1734 XV AF 24 Mar 45 24 Mar 1945 2 Lt Charles V. Brantley 100 FS 1 ME-262 2293 XV AF 12 Apr 45 1 Lt Roscoe C. Brown 100 FS 1 ME-262 2293 XV AF 12 Apr 45 1 Lt Earl R. Lane 100 FS 1 ME-262 2293 XV AF 12 Apr 45 31 Mar 1945 2 Lt Raul W. Bell 100 FS 1 FW-190 2293 XV AF 12 Apr 45 2 Lt Thomas P. Brasswell 99 FS 1 FW-190 2292 XV AF 12 Apr 45 1 Lt Roscoe C. Brown 100 FS 1 FW-190 2293 XV AF 12 Apr 45 Maj William A. Campbell 99 FS 1 ME-109 2292 XV AF 12 Apr 45 2 Lt John W. Davis 99 FS 1 ME-109 2292 XV AF 12 Apr 45 2 Lt James L. Hall 99 FS 1 ME-109 2292 XV AF 12 Apr 45 31 Mar 1945 1 Lt Earl R. Lane 100 FS 1 ME-109 2293 XV AF 12 Apr 45 FO John H. Lyle 100 FS 1 ME-109 2293 XV AF 12 Apr 45 1 Lt Daniel L. Rich 99 FS 1 ME-109 2292 XV AF 12 Apr 45 2 Lt Hugh J. White 99 FS 1 ME-109 2292 XV AF 12 Apr 45 1 Lt Robert W. Williams 100 FS 2 FW-190s 2293 XV AF 12 Apr 45 2 Lt Bertram W. Wilson Jr. 100 FS 1 FW-190 2293 XV AF 12 Apr 45 1 Apr 1945 2 Lt Carl E. Carey 301 FS 2 FW-190s 2294 XV AF 12 Apr 45 2 Lt John E. Edwards 301 FS 2 ME-109s 2294 XV AF 12 Apr 45 FO James H. Fischer 301 FS 1 FW-190 2294 XV AF 12 Apr 45 2 Lt Walter P. Manning 301 FS 1 FW-190 2294 XV AF 12 Apr 45 2 Lt Harold M. Morris 301 FS 1 FW-190 2294 XV AF 12 Apr 45 1 Lt Harry T. Stewart 301 FS 3 FW-190s 2294 XV AF 12 Apr 45 1 Lt Charles L. White 301 FS 2 ME-109s 2294 XV AF 12 Apr 45 15 Apr 1945 1 Lt Jimmy Lanham 301 FS 1 ME-109 3484 XV AF 29 May 45 26 Apr 1945 2 Lt Thomas W. Jefferson 301 FS 2 ME-109s 3362 XV AF 23 May 45 1 Lt Jimmy Lanham 301 FS 1 ME-109 3362 XV AF 23 May 45 2 Lt Richard A. Simons 100 FS 1 ME-109 2990 XV AF 4 May 45
*order says credit was 16 Jul 1944, but history says 18 Jul 1944
During World War II, the only African-American pilots in the Army Air Forces
who flew in combat served in the 99th, 100th, 301st, and 302nd Fighter Squadrons and the
332nd Fighter Group. None of these pilots earned more than four aerial victory credits.
None of them became an ace, with at least five aerial victory credits. Were the Tuskegee
Airmen who earned four aerial victory credits sent home in order to prevent a black pilot
from becoming an ace?
19
That is very doubtful. 1st Lt. Lee Archer was deployed back to the United States
the month after he scored his fourth aerial victory credit, and the same month he received
his fourth aerial victory credit. Captain Edward Toppins was deployed back to the
United States the second month after he scored his fourth aerial victory credit, and the
month after he received credit for it. However, Captain Joseph Elsberry earned his fourth
aerial victory credit in July 1944, and received credit for it early in August 1944. He did
not redeploy to the United States until December 1944. If there was a policy of sending
Tuskegee Airmen with four aerial victory credits home, in order to prevent a black man
from becoming an ace, the case of Captain Joseph Elsberry contradicts it, because he was
not sent home until four months after his fourth aerial victory credit was awarded, and
five months after he scored it. It is more likely that the pilots who deployed back to the
United States did so after having completed the number of missions they needed to finish
their respective tours of duty.
TABLE V: TABLE OF TUSKEGEE AIRMEN WITH FOUR AERIAL VICTORIES Name and rank at time of fourth aerial victory credit
Fighter Group
Fighter Squadron
Date of fourth aerial victory
Date of award of fourth aerial victory credit
Month of redeployment to the United States
1st Lt Lee Archer
332 302 12 October 1944
1 Nov 1944 November 1944
Captain Joseph Elsberry
332 301 20 July 1944 3 Aug 1944 December 1944
Captain Edward Toppins
332 99 26 July 1944 11 Aug 1944 September 1944
20
Sources: Fifteenth Air Force general orders awarding aerial victory credits; monthly histories of the 332d Fighter Group for August, September, October, November, and December 1944. Researcher: Daniel L. Haulman, Historian, Air Force Historical Research Agency Finally, the American Fighter Aces Association did honor Lee Archer one year,
but did not in fact name him an ace. At the same meeting, Charlton Heston was honored,
but he was not named an ace, either. Frank Olynyk, a historian for the American Fighter
Aces Association, confirmed that the association never recognized Lee Archer as having
shot down five enemy aircraft, and the Olynyk’s record agrees with that the Air Force
Historical Research Agency: Lee Archer earned a total of four aerial victory credits.18
A related myth about the Tuskegee Airmen is the notion that there were many
black pilots, not just Lee Archer, who shot down at least five enemy airplanes, but
because of the racism of the time, they were not given credit and were denied ace status.
The histories of the 99th, 100th, 301st, and 302nd Fighter Squadrons, and of the 332nd
Fighter Group, written by Tuskegee Airmen themselves during the war, refute the myth.
Those histories contain all the claims of black pilots for having shot down enemy
airplanes, and they are consistent with the credits that were awarded by orders of the
Twelfth or the Fifteenth Air Force. The Tuskegee Airmen shot down a total of 112
enemy airplanes, but none of the Tuskegee Airmen were aces. Four of the Tuskegee
Airmen each shot down three enemy airplanes in one day, and three of the Tuskegee
Airmen each shot down a total of four enemy airplanes, but there were no Tuskegee
Airmen aces.19
4. THE MISCONCEPTION OF BEING FIRST TO SHOOT DOWN GERMAN JETS
21
In a March 30, 2007 American Forces Press Service article regarding the
awarding of the Congressional Gold Medal to the Tuskegee Airmen, there is the
statement that Tuskegee Airman Roscoe Brown was “the first U.S. pilot to down a
German Messerschmitt jet.”20 That was another popular claim which has proven to be
false. Lee Archer, one of the most famous Tuskegee Airmen, repeated the claim in a
2001 interview. He claimed that “guys like Roscoe Brown and three other people shot
down the first jets in our history, in combat.”21 Three Tuskegee Airmen, 1st Lt. Roscoe
Brown, 1st Lt. Earl R. Lane, and 2nd Lt. Charles V. Brantley, each shot down a German
Me-262 jet on March 24, 1945, during the longest Fifteenth Air Force mission, which
went all the way to Berlin.22 However, American pilots shot down no less than sixty Me-
262 aircraft before 24 March 1945. Most of these American pilots served in the Eighth
Air Force.23
TABLE VI: USAAF AERIAL VICTORIES OVER GERMAN ME-262 JETS DATE ddmmyyyy
NAME CREDIT FTR GP
FTR SQ
Theater Aircraft Flown
28081944 2 Lt Manford O. Croy Jr. .50 78 82 FS ETO P-47 28081944 Maj Joseph Myers .50 78 82 FS ETO P-47 07101944 Maj Richard E. Conner 1.00 78 82 FS ETO P-47 07101944 1 Lt Urban L. Drew 2.00 361 375 FS ETO P-51 15101944 2 Lt Huie H. Lamb Jr. 1.00 78 82 FS ETO P-47 01111944 1 Lt Walter R. Groce .50 56 63 FS ETO P-47 01111944 2 Lt William T. Gerbe Jr. .50 352 486 FS ETO P-51 06111944 Capt Charles E. Yeager 1.00 357 363 FS ETO P-51 06111944 1 Lt William J. Quinn 1.00 361 374 FS ETO P-51 08111944 1 Lt James W. Kenney 1.00 357 362 FS ETO P-51 08111944 2 Lt Anthony Maurice 1.00 361 375 FS ETO P-51 08111944 1 Lt Ernest C. Fiebelkorn
Jr. .50 20 77 FS ETO P-51
08111944 1 Lt Edward R. Haydon .50 357 364 FS ETO P-51 08111944 1 Lt Richard W. Stevens 1.00 364 384 FS ETO P-51 18111944 2 Lt John M. Creamer .50 4 335 FS ETO P-51 18111944 Capt John C. Fitch .50 4 335 FS ETO P-51 09121944 2 Lt Harry L. Edwards 1.00 352 486 FS ETO P-51
22
22121944 1 Lt Eugene P. McGlauflin
.50 31 308 FS MTO P-51
22121944 2 Lt Roy L. Scales .50 31 308 FS MTO P-51 13011945 1 Lt Walter J. Konantz 1.00 55 338 FS ETO P-51 14011945 1 Lt Billy J. Murray 1.00 353 351 FS ETO P-51 14011945 1 Lt James W. Rohrs .50 353 351 FS ETO P-51 14011945 1 Lt George J. Rosen .50 353 351 FS ETO P-51 15011945 1 Lt Robert P. Winks 1.00 357 364 FS ETO P-51 20011945 1 Lt Dale E. Karger 1.00 357 364 FS ETO P-51 20011945 2 Lt Roland R. Wright 1.00 357 364 FS ETO P-51 09021945 1 Lt Johnnie L. Carter 1.00 357 363 FS ETO P-51 09021945 Capt Donald H. Bochkay 1.00 357 363 FS ETO P-51 09021945 1 Lt Stephen C. Ananian 1.00 339 505 FS ETO P-51 15021945 2 Lt Dudley M. Amoss 1.00 55 38 FS ETO P-51
DATE ddmmyyyy
NAME CREDIT FTR GP
FTR SQ
Theater Aircraft Flown
21021945 1 Lt Harold E. Whitmore 1.00 356 361 FS ETO P-51 22021945 Capt Gordon B. Compton 1.00 353 351 FS ETO P-51 22021945 2 Lt Charles D. Price 1.00 352 486 FS ETO P-51 22021945 Maj Wayne K. Blickenstaff 1.00 353 350 FS ETO P-51 22021945 1 Lt Oliven T. Cowan 1.00 388 ETO P-47 22021945 1 Lt David B. Fox 1.00 366 391 FS ETO P-47 25021945 Capt Donald M. Cummings 2.00 55 38 FS ETO P-51 25021945 2 Lt John F. O’Neil 1.00 55 38 FS ETO P-51 25021945 Capt Donald E. Penn 1.00 55 38 FS ETO P-51 25021945 1 Lt Milliard O. Anderson 1.00 55 38 FS ETO P-51 25021945 2 Lt Donald T. Menegay 1.00 55 38 FS ETO P-51 25021945 1 Lt Billy Clemmons 1.00 55 38 FS ETO P-51 25021945 1 Lt Carl G. Payne 1.00 4 334 FS ETO P-51 01031945 1 Lt Wendell W. Beaty 1.00 355 358 FS ETO P-51
P-51 01031945 1 Lt John K. Wilkins Jr. 1.00 2 AD 2 SF ETO P-51 02031945 1 Lt Theodore W. Sedvert 1.00 354 353 FS ETO P-51 14031945 1 Lt Charles R. Rodebaugh 1.00 2 AD 2 SF ETO P-51 19031945 Maj Niven K. Cranfill 1.00 359 368 FS ETO P-51 19031945 Capt Robert S. Fifield 1.00 357 363 FS ETO P-51 19031945 Maj Robert W. Foy 1.00 357 363 FS ETO P-51 19031945 Capt Charles H. Spencer 1.00 355 354 FS ETO P-51 20031945 1 Lt Robert E. Irion 1.00 339 505 FS ETO P-51 20031945 1 Lt Vernon N. Barto 1.00 339 504 FS ETO P-51 21031945 Capt Edwin H. Miller 1.00 78 83 FS ETO P-51 21031945 1 Lt Richard D. Anderson 1.00 361 375 FS ETO P-51
23
21031945 2 Lt Harry M. Chapman 1.00 361 376 FS ETO P-51 21031945 1 Lt John A. Kirk III 1.00 78 83 FS ETO P-51 21031945 1 Lt Robert H. Anderson 1.00 78 82 FS ETO P-51 21031945 2 Lt Walter E. Bourque 1.00 78 82 FS ETO P-51 21031945 Capt Winfield H. Brown .50 78 82 FS ETO P-51 21031945 1 Lt Allen A. Rosenblum .50 78 82 FS ETO P-51 22031945 Capt William J. Dillard 1.00 31 308 FS MTO P-51 22031945 2 Lt John W. Cunnick III 1.00 55 38 FS ETO P-51 22031945 1 Lt Eugene L. Peel .50 78 82 FS ETO P-51 22031945 2 Lt Milton B. Stutzman .50 78 82 FS ETO P-51 22031945 Capt Harold T. Barnaby 1.00 78 83 FS ETO P-51 24031945 2 Lt Charles V. Brantley 1.00 332 100 FS MTO P-51 24031945 1 Lt Roscoe C. Brown 1.00 332 100 FS MTO P-51 24031945 1 Lt Earl R. Lane 1.00 332 100 FS MTO P-51 24031945 Col William A. Daniel 1.00 31 308 FS MTO P-51 24031945 1 Lt Forrest M. Keene Jr. 1.00 31 308 FS MTO P-51 24031945 1 Lt Raymond D. Leonard 1.00 31 308 FS MTO P-51 24031945 Capt Kenneth T. Smith 1.00 31 308 FS MTO P-51 24031945 2 Lt William M. Wilder 1.00 31 308 FS MTO P-51 25031945 1 Lt Eugene H. Wendt 1.00 479 434 FS ETO P-51 25031945 Maj George E. Bostick 1.00 56 63 FS ETO P-47 25031945 2 Lt Edwin M. Crosthwait Jr. 1.00 56 63 FS ETO P-47 25031945 Capt Raymond H. Littge 1.00 352 487 FS ETO P-51 30031945 1 Lt Patrick L. Moore 1.00 55 343 FS ETO P-51 30031945 1 Lt Carroll W. Bennett 1.00 339 504 FS ETO P-51 30031945 Capt Robert F. Sargent 1.00 339 504 FS ETO P-51 30031945 Lt Col John D. Landers .50 78 38 FS ETO P-51 30031945 2 Lt Thomas V. Thain Jr. .50 78 84 FS ETO P-51 30031945 1 Lt Kenneth J. Scott Jr. 1.00 361 376 FS ETO P-51 30031945 1 Lt James C. Hurley 1.00 352 328 FS ETO P-51 30031945 2 Lt John B. Guy 1.00 364 383 FS ETO P-51 31031945 1 Lt Marvin H. Castleberry 1.00 2 AD 2 SF ETO P-51 31031945 1 Lt Harrison B. Tordoff 1.00 354 353 FS ETO P-51 31031945 1 Lt Wayne L. Coleman 1.00 78 82 FS ETO P-51 31031945 Capt William T. Bales Jr. 1.00 371 406 FS ETO P-47 04041945 1 Lt Robert C. Coker .50 339 504 FS ETO P-51 04041945 Capt Kirke B. Everson Jr. .50 339 504 FS ETO P-51 04041945 Capt Nile C. Greer 1.00 339 504 FS ETO P-51 04041945 2 Lt Robert C. Havighurst 1.00 339 504 FS ETO P-51 04041945 Lt Col George F. Ceuleers 1.00 364 383 FS ETO P-51 04041945 1 Lt Michael J. Kennedy .50 4 334 FS ETO P-51 04041945 1 Lt Harold H. Frederick .50 4 336 FS ETO P-51 04041945 1 Lt Raymond A. Dyer 1.00 4 334 FS ETO P-51 04041945 Capt Harry R. Corey 1.00 339 505 FS ETO P-51 04041945 1 Lt John W. Haun 1.00 324 316 FS ETO P-47
24
04041945 1 Lt Andrew N. Kandis 1.00 324 316 FS ETO P-47 05041945 Capt John C. Fahringer 1.00 56 63 FS ETO P-47 07041945 1 Lt Hilton O. Thompson 1.00 479 434 FS ETO P-51 07041945 Capt Verne E. Hooker 1.00 479 435 FS ETO P-51 08041945 1 Lt John J. Usiatynski 1.00 358 367 FS ETO P-47 09041945 2 Lt James T. Sloan 1.00 361 374 FS ETO P-51 09041945 Maj Edward B. Giller 1.00 55 343 FS ETO P-51 10041945 Capt Gordon B. Compton 1.00 353 351 FS ETO P-51 10041945 1 Lt Harold Tenenbaum 1.00 359 369 FS ETO P-51 10041945 2 Lt Walter J. Sharbo 1.00 56 62 FS ETO P-47 10041945 Capt John K. Hollins 1.00 20 79 FS ETO P-51 10041945 Capt John K. Brown 1.00 20 55 FS ETO P-51 10041945 1 Lt Willmer W. Collins 1.00 4 336 FS ETO P-51 10041945 2 Lt John W. Cudd Jr. .50 20 77 FS ETO P-51 10041945 F.O. Jerome Rosenblum .50 20 77 FS ETO P-51 10041945 1 Lt Keith R. McGinnis 1.00 55 38 FS ETO P-51 10041945 2 Lt Walter T. Drozd 1.00 20 77 FS ETO P-51 10041945 2 Lt Albert B. North 1.00 20 77 FS ETO P-51 10041945 1 Lt Robert J. Guggemus 1.00 359 369 FS ETO P-51 10041945 1 Lt Charles C. Pattillo 1.00 352 487 FS ETO P-51 10041945 Lt Col Earl D. Duncan .50 352 328 FS ETO P-51 10041945 Maj Richard G. McAuliffe .50 352 328 FS ETO P-51 10041945 1 Lt Kenneth A. Lashbrook 1.00 55 338 FS ETO P-51 10041945 Capt Robert W. Abernathy 1.00 353 350 FS ETO P-51 10041945 1 Lt Jack W. Clark .50 353 350 FS ETO P-51 10041945 2 Lt Bruce D. McMahan .50 353 350 FS ETO P-51 10041945 1 Lt Wayne C. Gatlin 1.00 356 360 FS ETO P-51 10041945 1 Lt Joseph W. Prichard .50 352 487 FS ETO P-51 10041945 2 Lt Carlo A. Ricci .50 352 487 FS ETO P-51 10041945 Capt Douglas J. Pick .50 364 384 FS ETO P-51 10041945 1 Lt Harry C. Schwartz .50 364 384 FS ETO P-51 16041945 1 Lt Vernon O. Fein 1.00 368 397 FS ETO P-47 16041945 1 Lt Henry A. Yandel 1.00 368 397 FS ETO P-47 16041945 Maj Eugene E. Ryan 1.00 55 338 FS ETO P-51 17041945 1 Lt James Zweizig 1.00 371 404 FS ETO P-47 17041945 Capt Jack A. Warner 1.00 354 356 FS ETO P-51 17041945 Capt Roy W. Orndarff 1.00 364 383 FS ETO P-51 17041945 Capt Walter L. Goff 1.00 364 383 FS ETO P-51 17041945 F.O. James A. Steiger 1.00 357 364 FS ETO P-51 17041945 1 Lt John C. Campbell Jr. 1.00 339 503 FS ETO P-51 18041945 Maj Ralph F. Johnson 1.00 325 319 FS MTO P-51 18041945 Capt Charles E. Weaver 1.00 357 362 FS ETO P-51 18041945 Maj Donald H. Bochkay 1.00 357 363 FS ETO P-51 19041945 Lt Col Jack W. Hayes Jr. 1.00 357 363 FS ETO P-51 19041945 Capt Robert S. Fifield 1.00 357 363 FS ETO P-51
25
19041945 1 Lt Paul N. Bowles 1.00 357 363 FS ETO P-51 19041945 1 Lt Carroll W. Ofsthun 1.00 357 363 FS ETO P-51 19041945 Capt Ivan L. McGuire .50 357 364 FS ETO P-51 19041945 1 Lt Gilmon L. Weber .50 357 364 FS ETO P-51 19041945 1 Lt Robert DeLoach 1.00 55 338 FS ETO P-51 19041945 2 Lt James P. McMullen 1.00 357 364 FS ETO P-51 24041945 Capt Jerry G. Mast .50 365 388 FS ETO P-47 24041945 2 Lt William H. Myers .50 365 388 FS ETO P-47 25041945 1 Lt Richard D. Stevenson .50 370 402 FS ETO P-51 25041945 1 Lt Robert W. Hoyle .50 370 402 FS ETO P-51 26041945 Capt Robert W. Clark 1.00 50 10 FS ETO P-47 26041945 Capt Herbert A. Philo 1.00 27 522 FS ETO P-47 Sources:USAAF (European Theater) Credits for the Destruction of Enemy Aircraft in Air-to-Air Combat, World War 2, Victory List No. 5, Frank J. Olynyk, May 1987. USAAF (Mediterranean Theater) Credits for the Destruction of Enemy Aircraft in Air-to-Air Combat, World War 2, Victory List No. 6, Frank J. Olynyk, June 1987. USAF Historical Study No. 85, USAF Credits for the Destruction of Enemy Aircraft, World War II, Albert F. Simpson Historical Research Center, 1978. Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II, edited by Maurer Maurer, 1969. Air Force Combat Units of World War II, edited by Maurer Maurer, 1983. Compiled by: Patsy Robertson, Historian Organizational Histories Branch, USAFHRA
The Tuskegee Airmen were also not the first Fifteenth Air Force pilots to shoot
down German jets, as is sometimes alleged.24 Two such pilots, 1st Lt. Eugene P.
McGlauflin and 2d Lt. Roy L. Scales, both of the Fifteenth Air Force’s 31st Fighter Group
and 308th Fighter Squadron, shared a victory over an Me-262 German jet on 22
December 1944, and Capt. William J. Dillard, also of the Fifteenth Air Force’s 31st
Fighter Group and 308th Fighter Squadron, shot down an Me-262 German jet on 22
March 1945. Moreover, on the day three Tuskegee Airmen shot down three German jets
over Berlin on March 24, 1945, five other American pilots of the Fifteenth Air Force, on
the same mission, with the 31st Fighter Group, also shot down German Me-262 jets.
They included Colonel William A. Daniel, 1st Lt. Forrest M. Keene, 1st Lt Raymond D.
Leonard, Capt. Kenneth T. Smith, and 2nd Lt. William M. Wilder.25
26
5. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN SANK A GERMAN DESTROYER.
In the movie Red Tails by George Lucas, a P-51 fighter pilot is depicted as
strafing a German destroyer until it explodes, and group members are later shown
watching gun camera film of the attack and the explosion, suggesting that a Tuskegee
Airman in a red-tailed Mustang sank a destroyer by himself. The 332nd Fighter Group
narrative mission report for June 25, 1944 notes that eight of the group’s pilots flying P-
47 aircraft strafed a German destroyer, on June 25, 1944, and two of them went around
for another pass to do more strafing. The group did not begin flying P-51s in combat
until the next month.26
The mission report also notes that the group sank the destroyer that day in the
Adriatic Sea near Trieste. The pilots on the mission undoubtedly believed that they had
sunk a German destroyer at that place and time. In a 2001 interview, Tuskegee Airman
Lee Archer claimed “We sank a destroyer escort,” and when others doubted, “we sent
them the film,” implying that gun camera film showed the ship sinking.27
It is not likely that gun camera film, activated when the machine guns were fired,
also showed the actual sinking of the ship, which would not have been immediate.
Moreover, other records show that the only German ship that was attacked at the same
place and time was the TA-22, the former World War I Italian destroyer Giuseppe
Missori, which the Germans had converted into a very large torpedo vessel. The same
records show that the ship did not sink on June 25, 1944, but was heavily damaged. The
TA-22 was decommissioned on November 8, 1944, and scuttled at Trieste in 1945. It
might as well have been sunk on June 25, 1944, because it never fought the Allies
again.28
27
The book, The Tuskegee Airmen, by Charles Francis notes that the Tuskegee
Airmen attacked an enemy ship on June 25, 1944, , and that Gwynne W. Pierson and
Wendell O. Pruitt each earned a Distinguished Flying Cross for the mission. The book
also claims that Pierson was given credit for sinking the ship. The only Distinguished
Flying Cross I found for Gwynne W. Pierson was for his action on August 14, 1944
(Fifteenth Air Force General Order 287 dated January 19, 1945), and the only
Distinguished Flying Cross I found for Wendell O. Pruitt was for his action on August
27, 1944 (Fifteenth Air Force General Order 3950 dated October 15, 1944.29
Some sources suggest that the Tuskegee Airmen sank the German ship TA-27,
which had been the Italian warship Aurige. The TA-27 was actually sunk on June 9,
1944 off the coast of Elba, west of the Italian peninsula, far from the Adriatic Sea, which
is east of the Italian peninsula. The Tuskegee Airmen would not have sunk the TA-27,
because the date and place do not match the group mission report.30
6. THE MISCONCEPTION OF THE “GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY” One of the popular stories about the Tuskegee Airmen is sometimes nicknamed
the “Great Train Robbery.” According to the story, personnel in charge of supplying the
332d Fighter Group robbed a train in order to obtain unusually large 110-gallon wing
tanks the group needed to fly the unusually long Berlin mission of March 24, 1945. The
story goes on to say that the fuel tanks acquired had been designed to fit the P-47s, not
the P-51 airplanes of the 332nd Fighter Group, forcing the maintenance personnel to
improvise the connections. According to the story, the maintainers were able to jury-rig
the connections just in time for all the planes to be equipped to fly the Berlin mission.31
28
Another version of the story claims that only the 100th Fighter Squadron needed
the larger tanks, and that at night Captain Omar Blair gathered a few enlisted men to
seize the 110-gallon tanks from a train moving from Naples to deliver them to another
group. As the story goes, the men “commandeered six flatbed trucks” and used one to
block the tracks so that the train would have to stop. Using the submachine guns, they
then forced “the shocked white staff sergeants operating the train” to give them the 110-
gallon fuel tanks they needed. Using the six trucks, Blair’s group delivered the larger
tanks just in time for the 332nd Fighter Group to fly the Berlin mission.32
There are reasons to question the popular versions of the story. The larger 110-
gallon fuel tanks were not new to the 332nd Fighter Group. In fact, they had been used on
the longer missions of the group for weeks before March 1945.33 The group would not
have needed to modify the tanks to fit the P-51 aircraft, since the P-51s had carried such
tanks before. James Sheppard was a crew chief in the 301st Fighter Squadron, and took
part in preparing a P-51 of the 332d Fighter Group for the 24 March 1945 mission to
Berlin during the night before the mission. As an experienced aircraft maintenance
technician, he did not experience any difficulty in mounting larger fuel tanks to the wings
of the P-51 he was maintaining so that they could carry out the mission.34
TABLE VII: 110-GALLON FUEL TANKS ON HAND, 332ND FIGHTER GROUP
Week Ending 1945
Air Service Squadron
Fighter Group
Base 110-gallon fuel tanks on hand
2 February 366 332 Ramitelli 563 9 February 366 332 Ramitelli 424 16 February 366 332 Ramitelli 295 23 February 366 332 Ramitelli 48 2 March 366 332 Ramitelli Not given 9 March 366 332 Ramitelli 187 16 March 366 332 Ramitelli 0
29
23 March 366 332 Ramitelli 0 30 March 366 332 Ramitelli 64 Sources: February and March 1945 histories of the 38th Air Service Group
A version of the misconception includes the claim that the larger fuel tanks the
332nd Fighter Group obtained the night before the Berlin mission were made for P-47
airplanes, and had to be hastily adapted to fit the wings of P-51s.35 A version of the story
is that the Tuskegee Airmen mechanics armed themselves just before the Berlin mission
to raid the bases of P-47 units to steal the larger fuel tanks of those other fighter planes,
and then to jury-rig the tanks so that would fit the Tuskegee Airmen P-51s so that they
would have the range to go all the way to Berlin and back.36 That is absurd. None of the
fighter groups of the Fifteenth Air Force in Italy had flown P-47 airplanes since early
July 1944.37 In fact, the last of the groups to ever fly P-47s was the Tuskegee Airmen’s
332nd Fighter Group. Eight months had passed since P-47s were used by the fighter
escorts in the Mediterranean Theater. The idea that 110-gallon fuel tanks for P-47s were
being shipped to the Foggia area by train in March 1945 makes no sense, since P-47s had
not been used by the fighter escorts in the theater for many months.
TABLE VIII. TRANSITION OF FIFTEENTH AIR FORCE FIGHTER GROUPS FROM P-47s TO P-51s Fighter Group Last month flying P-47s First month flying P-51s 325 May 1944 May 1944 332 June 1944 July 1944 Source: Maurer Maurer, Air Force Combat Units of World War II (Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1983. The 332nd Fighter Group was not the only P-51 fighter escort group to fly the
Berlin mission. There were three other P-51 groups that also flew the same mission, and
they also used the larger fuel tanks to reach the target and get back. Two of the P-51
groups, the 31st and the 325t Fighter Groups, had an ample supply of the 110-gallon fuel
30
tanks in the latter half of March 1945. Two of the others, the 52nd and the 332nd Fighter
Groups, ran out of the larger tanks in mid March, 1945, just before the mission.38
Apparently they had to go to extraordinary lengths to get the fuel tanks they needed.
On March 23, 1945, the 55th Air Service Squadron of the 380th Air Service Group
dispatched trucks from the depot at Foggia to the railhead at Chieuti for the larger fuel
tanks. The squadron’s diary entry for 24 March notes that it received “one trailer load of
110 gal auxiliary tanks for 366th Air Service Squadron.” The 366th Air Service Squadron
was based at Ramitelli, Italy, with the 332d Fighter Group, to service its P-51 aircraft.
Another 55th Air Service Squadron diary entry in March 1945 notes that the squadron
also used trucks to deliver 110-gallon fuel tanks from Chieuti to the 52d Fighter Group,
which, like the 332d Fighter Group, flew P-51s for the Fifteenth Air Force and which was
based near Ramitelli.39 The larger 110- gallon auxiliary fuel tanks were delivered to
Ramitelli by truck, not from the depot at Foggia, where the smaller fuel tanks had been
obtained, but from a railhead at Chieuti instead. At least some of the fuel tanks the 332nd
Fighter Group used for the mission came from Chieuti, and from the 55th Air Service
Squadron, which shared them with the 366th Air Service Squadron at Ramitelli. Those
tanks were not stolen from a train, but were obtained from a railhead.
A version of the “great train robbery” legend notes that personnel of the 523rd Air
Service Group scrounged up the 110 gallon tanks.40 One of the problems with this
account is that the 523rd Air Service Group was not active until April 4, 1945, almost two
weeks after the Berlin mission.41
According to Tuskegee Airman Lee Archer, who told a version of what he called
“The Great Train Robbery” story in an interview with Dr. Lisa Bratton in March 2001 in
31
New York, when larger fuel tanks for needed for the Berlin mission, which was farther
than other missions, “our enlisted men, under a warrant officer, went to the depot and
took ‘em.” This version contradicts other versions, which suggest that a train was
actually stopped and robbed instead of a depot.42
The day after the Berlin mission, Colonel Benjamin O. Davis, commander of the
332nd Fighter Group, commended Captain Omar Blair of the 366th Air Service Squadron
for his part in obtaining the fuel tanks the 332nd Fighter Group needed for the Berlin
mission. Captain Blair subsequently also commended Staff Sergeant George Watson of
the squadron for leading a detail that traveled 60 miles to obtain the wing tanks needed
for the all-important Berlin mission. The letters of commendation noted that the efforts
were undertaken the evening of March 23 and the pre-dawn hours of March 24, just in
time for the mission to succeed. Captain Blair and SSgt. Watson were instrumental in the
success of the 332nd Fighter Group’s part in the longest Fifteenth Air Force air raid of the
war, but the story that they had to rob a train, and that the 110-gallon fuel tanks had to be
jury-rigged to fit the P-51s, is not consistent with the historical records.43
7. THE MISCONCEPTION OF SUPERIORITY
A popular story circulating about the Tuskegee Airmen is that while many
expected the “Tuskegee Airmen experiment” to prove that black pilots were inferior to
white pilots, and that the black pilots would fail, the Tuskegee Airmen actually proved
the opposite: that they were superior to the white pilots, and significantly outperformed
them.44 Whether the 332nd Fighter Group was better or worse than the other three P-51
groups in the Fifteenth Air Force is debatable.
32
The number of bombers under Tuskegee Airmen escort that were shot down by
enemy aircraft was 27, but the average number of bombers under the escort of white
fighter groups in the Fifteenth Air Force, in the same time period, was 46.45 The numbers
suggest that the 332nd Fighter Group lost significantly fewer bombers than the white
fighter groups, and therefore outperformed them. A related claim is that the 332nd Fighter
Group developed such a reputation for superior escort performance that the bombardment
groups requested to be escorted by the “Red Tails” rather than the other fighter escort
groups.
A popular story is that the black pilots of the 332d Fighter Group were the only
fighter escort pilots to stay with the bombers they were assigned to protect, and that the
white fighter pilots of the other groups invariably left the bombers to go after enemy
fighters to shoot down, in order to build up their totals of aerial victory credits. One
version of this story appears in Kai Wright’s book Soldiers of Freedom: An Illustrated
History of African Americans in the Armed Forces (New York: Black Dog and Leventhal
Publishers, 2002), p. 181: “Throughout the war, it [the 332d Fighter Group] flew bomber
escorts- duty rejected by white pilots because it didn’t offer as much opportunity to earn
kills, and thus praise and promotion- and earned a reputation as the air force’s most
reliable escort.”46
The practice of fighter escorts “sticking with the bombers” was not unique to the
332nd Fighter Group. The Eighth Air Force in England practiced the policy of staying
with the bombers at least until early January 1944, when Lieutenant General Jimmy
Doolittle succeeded Major General Ira Eaker as its commander. He ordered his Eighth
Fighter Command leader, Major General William E. Kepner, to take down a sign saying
33
the first duty of the fighter pilots was to bring back the bombers safely, and replace it
with another sign saying that the first duty of the fighter pilots was to shoot down enemy
airplanes. Doolittle authorized his fighter escorts to leave the bombers and go after the
enemy fighters.47
When Doolittle became commander of the Eighth Air Force, Lieutenant General
Eaker moved to the Mediterranean Theater and became commander of the Mediterranean
Allied Air Forces, which supervised the Twelfth and Fifteenth Air Forces and British air
forces in the Mediterranean theater. Eaker probably took his “stick with the bombers”
policy with him, and it was the policy not only of the 332nd Fighter Group but also of the
other fighter escort groups in the Fifteenth Air Force.
The history of the Fifteenth Air Force covering November 1943-May 1945, vol. I,
notes that "Before the summer of 1944, the fighters always maintained close escort. The
original policy of the Air Force, in fact, stipulated that the fighters were never to leave the
bombers in order to make an attack unless enemy aircraft were obviously preparing to
strike at the bomber formation. As enemy fighter opposition declined, however, one
squadron, at the discretion of the group commander, was sometimes detached for a
fighter sweep against the enemy. This was done on withdrawal only, and in no case
before the bombers had reached the target."48
Another interesting quote from the same document: "During the counter-air
campaign early in 1944, a particularly high level of efficiency was reached by the escort
fighters. On four consecutive days in February, heavy bomber penetrations into Germany
were covered by an escort of P-38s and P-47s. Bomber pilots reported that the cover
provided on these missions was the best ever furnished in the Air Force up to that time."
34
The May 1944 history of the 52nd Fighter Group, written after that white fighter group
had transitioned to P-51 Mustang fighters, notes that “the B-24 combat crews are highly
pleased with the excellent escort work our group has been doing.”49 It bears noting that
the 332d Fighter Group had not started to escort Fifteenth Air Force bombers yet. The
332d Fighter Group started escorting bombers for the Fifteenth Air Force on June 7,
1944. From this important documents, it seems clear that the policy of the Fifteenth Air
Force in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, unlike the policy of the Eighth Air
Force in England after Lt. Gen. James Doolittle took charge of it, was to furnish close
escort for the bombers, and not leave them to go after enemy fighters in the distance, and
that the bomber crews were pleased with the escort that had been provided by the white
fighter groups. Apparently the 332d Fighter Group was not the only fighter group
providing close escort in the Fifteenth Air Force, and doing it well enough for the bomber
crews to express appreciation.50
None of the twenty-one heavy bomber groups in the Fifteenth Air Force was
stationed at the same airfield as any of the seven fighter groups.51 The assignments
rotated, and one fighter group was not always assigned to escort the same bombardment
wing or wings, or to provide the same kind of escort day after day. For example,
sometimes a group would be assigned penetration escort, sometimes withdrawal escort,
sometimes escort over the target, and sometimes a combination of them. The daily
mission reports show that all the groups were flying the same kinds of missions, for the
most part, and do not indicate that only one was escorting effectively. On many days,
more than one fighter group was escorting many bomber groups heading for the same
target. Because the assignments were made on a rotational basis by headquarters,
35
apparently without discrimination, the idea that bombardment crews could request one
fighter group over another for escort duty, and get it, is not likely. All of the
bombardment groups were stationed at bases miles away from the 332d Fighter Group at
Ramitelli Air Field in Italy, and their personnel had little or no interaction with the
personnel of the fighter groups that escorted them. Most of them did not have the option
of choosing one group over another.
TABLE IX: STATIONS OF FIFTEENTH AIR FORCE GROUPS, JUNE 1944-MAY 1945 Group Wing Airfield Predominate
aircraft type 2 Bombardment 5 Bombardment Amendola, Italy B-17 97 Bombardment 5 Bombardment Amendola, Italy B-17 99 Bombardment 5 Bombardment Tortorella, Italy B-17 301 Bombardment 5 Bombardment Lucera, Italy B-17 463 Bombardment 5 Bombardment Celone, Italy B-17 483 Bombardment 5 Bombardment Sterparone, Italy B-17 98 Bombardment 47 Bombardment Lecce, Italy B-24 376 Bombardment 47 Bombardment San Pancrazio, Italy B-24 449 Bombardment 47 Bombardment Grottaglie, Italy B-24 450 Bombardment 47 Bombardment Manduria, Italy B-24 451 Bombardment 49 Bombardment Castelluccio, Italy B-24 461 Bombardment 49 Bombardment Torretto, Italy B-24 484 Bombardment 49 Bombardment Torretto, Italy B-24 460 Bombardment 55 Bombardment Spinazzola, Italy B-24 464 Bombardment 55 Bombardment Pantanella, Italy B-24 465 Bombardment 55 Bombardment Pantanella, Italy B-24 485 Bombardment 55 Bombardment Venosa, Italy B-24 454 Bombardment 304 Bombardment San Giovanni, Italy B-24 455 Bombardment 304 Bombardment San Giovanni, Italy B-24 456 Bombardment 304 Bombardment Stornara, Italy B-24 459 Bombardment 304 Bombardment Giulia, Italy B-24 1 Fighter 305 Fighter Salsola, then Vincenzo,
then Salsolo, then Lesina, Italy
P-38
14 Fighter 305 Fighter Triolo, Italy P-38 82 Fighter 305 Fighter Vincenzo, Italy P-38 31 Fighter 306 Fighter San Severo, then
Mondolfo, Italy P-51
36
52 Fighter 306 Fighter Madna, then Piagiolino, Italy
P-51
325 Fighter 306 Fighter Lesina, then Rimini, then Mondolfo, Italy
P-51
332 Fighter 306 Fighter Ramitelli, Italy P-47 and P-51* Source: Maurer Maurer, Air Force Combat Units of World War II (Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1983). *The 332nd Fighter Group obtained its P-51 airplanes during July 1944. At least one of the bombardment groups had become acquainted with the 332d
Fighter Group, and knew it consisted of black pilots flying bomber escort duty. On
December 29, 1944, eighteen B-24 bombers were forced by bad weather to land at
Ramitelli Air Field in Italy, the home base of the 332d Fighter Group, which was flying
P-51s. Seventeen of those bombers came from the 485th Bombardment Group, and the
other one came from the 455th Bombardment Group. Most of the white bomber crews
spent five days with the Tuskegee Airmen, enjoying their hospitality at a very crowded
base. The 332d Fighter Group left a note in each bomber noting that the 332d Fighter
Group’s red-tailed escort fighters were there to protect them on their bombing missions.
If any bomber crews requested that the 332d Fighter Group escort them, they probably
belonged to the 485th or 455th Bombardment Groups, some of whose personnel had met
members of the 332d Fighter Group and shared accommodations with them. The request
would have been based on the bomber crews’ experience at Ramitelli, and not because
the 332d Fighter Group had demonstrated its obvious superiority to the other fighter
groups of the Fifteenth Air Force.52
At times, the bombardment crews would mistake one set of escorts for another.
For example, World War II B-24 bomber pilot John Sonneborn remembered gratefully
that his aircraft was saved by a red-tailed P-51 pilot when he was flying a mission to
Ploesti, Rumania, on May 5, 1944. He assumed that he had been escorted by a Tuskegee
37
Airman, since he learned after the war that they had flown red-tailed P-51s in his theater.
What Mr. Sonneborn did not realize was that the 332d Fighter Group did not begin flying
missions to escort heavy bombers such as B-24s until June 1944, and the 332d Fighter
Group did not begin flying P-51 aircraft until July 1944. If Sonneborn were saved by a
pilot in a red-tailed P-51, that fighter pilot must have belonged to the 31st Fighter Group,
because the 31st Fighter Group escorted B-24s to Ploesti on May 5, 1944, and the tails of
the 31st Fighter Group P-51s were painted with red stripes. After the war, bomber crews
sometimes gave fighter escort credit to the wrong group.53
Another example is a January 1, 2014 article called “Tuskegee Airmen Assured
Fellow Pilots a Happy New Year,” by Pete Mecca, published in The Covington News of
Newton County, Georgia. The article notes that Jim Shreib in a B-24 bomber was
escorted home by a Tuskegee Airman in a red-tailed P-51 on November 14, 1944. The
problem is that the 332nd Fighter Group, to which the Red Tails belonged at the time, did
not fly a mission on November 14, 1944. The group prepared a narrative mission report
for each mission they flew for the Fifteenth Air Force, and the reports are numbered
sequentially. On November 11, 1944, the group flew mission 118, and on November 16,
1944, the group flew mission 119. The Tuskegee Airmen’s 332nd Fighter Group did not
fly any missions on November 12-15, 1944. If Shreib was escorted by a pilot in a red-
tailed P-51 on November 14, 1944, that pilot must have belonged to the 31st Fighter
Group, which flew P-51s with striped red tails.54
Yet the statistics still suggest strongly that the Tuskegee Airmen lost significantly
fewer bombers to enemy aircraft fire than the average number lost by the other fighter
groups in the Fifteenth Air Force. Does that mean the Tuskegee Airmen were superior?
38
One measure of the quality of the fighter escort groups was not just the number of
bombers they lost to enemy aircraft fire, but the number of enemy fighters they
destroyed, because each of those enemy fighters was a potential bomber killer. Shooting
down enemy fighters was also a way to protect the bombers. In November 1945, the War
Department published a report called “Policy for Utilization of Negro Manpower in the
Post-War Army. Since the report had been prepared by a committee of generals headed
by Lt. Gen. Alvan C. Gillem, Jr., it was sometimes called the “Gillem Report.” Part of
the report compared the four P-51 fighter escort groups of the Fifteenth Air Force, which
included the all-black 332nd Fighter Group and the all-white 31st, 52nd, 325th, and 332nd
Fighter Groups (the other three fighter escort groups of the Fifteenth Air Force, the 1st,
14th, and 82nd, flew P-38 aircraft). While the report praised the 332d Fighter Group for
successfully escorting bombers, it also criticized the group for having fewer aerial victory
credits than the other groups because it did not aggressively chase enemy fighters to
shoot them down. The report also claimed that each of the three white P-51 fighter
groups shot down more than twice as many aircraft as it lost in combat, but that the 332d
Fighter Group lost more of its own aircraft in combat than it destroyed of the enemy.
TABLE X: COMPARISON OF FIFTEENTH AIR FORCE P-51 FIGHTER GROUPS Fighter Group
Predominant race Victories per aircraft lost in combat
31st White 2.49 52nd White 2.08 325th White 2.22 332nd Black 0.66 Source: “Policy for Utilization of Negro Manpower in the Post-War Army,” Report of War Department Special Board on Negro Manpower, November 1945, Air Force Historical Research Agency call number 170.2111-1, November 1945), section on
39
historical evaluation of the Negro’s Military Service, subsection 9, evaluation of combat performance of the Negro in World War II, under g., “combat aviation,” p. 15.
A comparison of the aerial victory credits of the seven fighter groups of the
Fifteenth Air Force covering the period the 332nd Fighter Group flew for the Fifteenth Air
Force, between early June 1944 and the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, reveals
that each of the groups, except the 332nd Fighter Group, produced at least one ace. The
three groups that flew P-38 aircraft each produced only one or two aces in the period
considered, but each of the three P-51 groups, besides the 332nd Fighter Group, had at
least ten. In other words, during the period June 1944 through the end of the war in
Europe, each of the P-51 fighter groups of the Fifteenth Air Force, except the 332nd
Fighter Group, had at least ten pilots who shot down at least five enemy aircraft. The
332nd Fighter Group had none. The 31st and 52nd Fighter Groups each had ten, and the
325th Fighter Group had eleven.55
TABLE XI: FIGHTER ACES OF THE FIFTEENTH AIR FORCE BY GROUP, JUNE 1944-APRIL 1945
Fighter Group Fighter Squadrons Aircraft type flown Number of aces 1 27, 71, 94 P-38 Two 14 37, 48, 49 P-38 One 82 95, 96, 97 P-38 Four 31 307, 308, 309 P-51 Ten 52 2, 4, 5 P-51 Ten 325 317, 318, 319 P-51 Eleven 332 99, 100, 301, 302 P-47 and P-51* None
Sources: Maurer Maurer, Air Force Combat Units of World War II (Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1983) for squadrons of each group and aircraft flown by each group; USAF Historical Study No. 85, USAF Credits for the Destruction of Enemy Aircraft, World War II (Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1978) for aerial victory credits for each squadron listed chronologically; Barrett Tillman e-mail to Daniel Haulman, 23 May 2012. *The 332nd Fighter Group obtained its P-51 aircraft during July 1944.
40
Why was the 332nd Fighter Group the only one of the Fifteenth Air Force P-51
groups that had no pilots to shoot down at least five enemy aircraft, when the other three
such groups each had at least ten such pilots? There are a number of possible
explanations. The 332nd Fighter Group, of all the P-51 groups in the Fifteenth Air Force,
shot down the least number of enemy aircraft, and the fewer the number of aircraft shot
down, the less the chances for the pilots to become aces. Another possible reason is that
the 332nd Fighter Group had more P-51 pilots on any given mission, since that group had
four squadrons, and the other groups had only three. More pilots in the group meant less
opportunity for each of the pilots to become an ace. The members of the 332nd Fighter
Group might have performed more as a team, with no pilot attempting to become a
superstar at the expense of the others, or of the bombers they were protecting. Another
theory, already addressed in a previous misconception regarding Lee Archer, is that there
was a racial conspiracy to prevent a black man from becoming an ace. As already
mentioned, there is no documentation to support that theory, and the documentation that
does exist contradicts it. Another explanation is that Colonel Benjamin O. Davis, Jr.,
commander of the 332nd Fighter Group, would not allow his fighter pilots to leave the
bombers in order to chase enemy fighters and build up their aerial victory credit claims
and scores.
In comparing the 332nd Fighter Group with the other P-51 fighter groups of the
Fifteenth Air Force between June 1944 and the end of April 1945, when they were all
primarily escorting bombers, one should bear in mind two factors. The more enemy
aircraft a group encountered, the greater the chance the group had to shoot down enemy
airplanes, and the less chance the enemy had to shoot down escorted bombers. If the
41
332nd Fighter Group encountered fewer enemy aircraft than the other groups, it would
have had less opportunity to shoot down enemy aircraft, and enemy aircraft would have
had less opportunity to shoot down escorted bombers. Another factor to consider is the
fact that the 332nd Fighter Group was the last one to be assigned to the Fifteenth Air
Force. Its pilots did not have as much experience as the pilots of the other groups in
aerial combat associated with long-range escort missions, at least during June and July
1944. In addition to that, during June and July 1944, unlike the other groups, the 332nd
Fighter Group and its squadrons were transitioning from P-39 to P-47 aircraft, and from
P-40 and P-47 aircraft to P-51 aircraft. By the time the 332nd Fighter Group pilots were
used to flying P-51s and engaging enemy aircraft challenging the bomber formations, the
enemy aircraft opposition had declined considerably. By the latter half of 1944 and the
first half of 1945, the German air force was a shadow of its former self, and the majority
of the bomber escort missions encountered no enemy aircraft.
Members of the 332nd Fighter Group encountered enemy aircraft on only 35 of
their 179 bomber escort missions for the Fifteenth Air Force (they flew a total of 312
missions for the Fifteenth Air Force between early June 1944 and late April 1945, but
many of the missions did not escort bombers). They shot down enemy aircraft on only
21 of those missions. 332nd Fighter Group members lost escorted bombers to enemy
aircraft on only 7 of their Fifteenth Air Force missions.56 It is possible that the 332nd
Fighter Group lost fewer bombers and shot down fewer enemy aircraft than the other P-
51 groups in the Fifteenth Air Force because it encountered fewer enemy aircraft on its
missions, and not because it was providing better escort protection by staying closer to
the bombers. The more enemy aircraft a fighter escort group encountered, the more
42
chance it had of both losing bombers and shooting down enemy aircraft. The fewer
enemy aircraft a fighter escort group encountered, the less chance it had of both losing
bombers and shooting down enemy aircraft.
Surely we can say that one reason the Tuskegee Airmen shot down fewer enemy
airplanes than the other P-51 groups in the Fifteenth Air Force, and had no aces as they
did, is that the 332nd Fighter Group entered combat later than the others. However, that
fact can also help explain why the Tuskegee Airmen had fewer escorted bombers lost to
enemy aircraft. One reason the Tuskegee Airmen lost fewer escorted bombers than the
other P-51 groups in the Fifteenth Air Force is that the 332nd Fighter Group entered
combat later than the others. By the time the 332nd Fighter Group began escorting the
heavy bombers of the Fifteenth Air Force, in June 1944, the other groups had already lost
bombers to enemy aircraft, and the German air force was stronger in the period before
June 1944 than later.
In the final analysis, whether the Tuskegee Airmen were superior or inferior to the
other fighter escort groups with which they served depends on the criteria. The Tuskegee
Airmen seemed to be superior because they lost significantly fewer escorted bombers to
enemy aircraft than the average fighter group in the Fifteenth Air Force. On the other
hand, the Tuskegee Airmen seemed to be inferior because they shot down fewer enemy
fighters than any other P-51 fighter group in the Fifteenth Air Force. I prefer to conclude
that the Tuskegee Airmen proved, by their exemplary combat performance, not that they
were superior or inferior to the white fighter pilots, but that they were equal to them. The
issue is not really superiority or inferiority, but equality. Furthermore, each pilot should
really be measured as an individual, not part of some artificial class. There were
43
unquestionably some individual black fighter pilots who had superior records than some
individual white fighter pilots, and vice versa.
8. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN UNITS WERE ALL BLACK All of the Tuskegee Airmen organizations in combat, including the 99th, 100th,
301st, and 302nd Fighter Squadrons and the 332nd Fighter Group, were virtually all black
by the time they deployed overseas, and remained all black until the Air Force was
integrated in 1949. However, the Tuskegee Airmen flying organizations were not
originally all black, and it would be a mistake to imagine that white officers never
belonged to them, or that white officers were invariably opposed to their success.
The most famous of the Tuskegee Airmen military organizations were the 99th
Fighter Squadron, the first black flying unit in the American military; the 332d Fighter
Group, the first black fighter group; and the 477th Bombardment Group, the first black
bomber group. All of these Tuskegee Airmen military organizations began with both
black and white members. The first three commanders of the 99th Fighter Squadron
(originally called the 99th Pursuit Squadron) were white. They included Captain Harold
R. Maddux, 2nd Lt. Clyde H. Bynum, and Captain Alonzo S. Ward. The first two
commanders of the 332d Fighter Group were white. They included Lt. Col. Sam W.
Westbrook and Col. Robert R. Selway. The first commander of the 477th Bombardment
Group, after it was activated as a predominantly black group, was white. He was Col.
Robert R. Selway (who had earlier commanded the 332nd Fighter Group). All of these
military organizations eventually became virtually all-black, but they did not begin that
way.57
44
Many of the flight instructors at Tuskegee were white. This was true at all three
of the bases around Tuskegee, including Kennedy Field, where civilian pilot training took
place; at Moton Field, where the primary flight training occurred; and at Tuskegee Army
Air Field, where the basic, advanced, and transition training was completed. White
officers retained leadership positions in the flying training organizations at Moton Field
and Tuskegee Army Air Field throughout World War II.58
For more than a year before the 99th Fighter Squadron was assigned to the 332d
Fighter Group, it served in combat overseas while attached to various white fighter
groups, as if it were one of the squadrons of those groups. In effect, those groups
included both black and white personnel while the 99th Fighter Squadron was attached to
them. Some of the members of the 99th Fighter Squadron, which by then had become an
all-black organization, resented being assigned to the 332nd Fighter Group, because they
had become accustomed to serving in white groups, flying alongside white fighter
squadrons, and did not relish being placed with the black fighter group simply because
they were also black. In a sense, it was a step back toward more segregation. At any
rate, many Tuskegee Airmen during World War II served in units that once included
white personnel, although as the war progressed, their organizations became all black.59
To be sure, some of the white officers who were in command of Tuskegee
Airmen opposed equal opportunities for them. Colonel William Momyer of the 33rd
Fighter Group opposed the continued combat role of the 99th Fighter Squadron when it
was attached to his group, and Colonel Robert Selway, commander of the 477th
Bombardment Group at Freeman Field, attempted to enforce segregated officers’ clubs at
that base, and had many of the Tuskegee Airmen arrested for opposing his policy.60 But
45
for every white officer who discouraged equal opportunity for the Tuskegee Airmen
under their command, there were other white officers who sincerely worked for their
success. They included Forrest Shelton, who instructed pilots in civilian and primary
pilot training at Kennedy and Moton Fields near Tuskegee; Major William T. Smith, who
supervised primary pilot training at Moton Field; Captain Robert M. Long, a flight
instructor who taught the first Tuskegee Airmen pilots to graduate from advanced pilot
training at Tuskegee Army Air Field; Colonel Noel Parrish, commander of the pilot
training at Tuskegee Army Air Field; and Colonel Earl E. Bates, commander of the 79th
Fighter Group for most of the time the 99th Fighter Squadron was attached to it (from
October 1943 to April 1944.)61
Even the black pilots of the Tuskegee Airmen units were not all black. Many of
them descended not only from African Americans, but also from European Americans
and native Americans. Some were a mixture of all three. Yet no matter how little
African American blood they had, most of the members of the Tuskegee Airmen
organizations were classified as “colored” in the World War II period. The skin color
and hair texture and facial features of the Tuskegee Airmen varied as greatly as their
height. Some of the Tuskegee Airman pilots looked more white than black. The racial
diversity among the members of the Tuskegee Airmen organizations belied the foolish
idea that men should be separated from each other on the basis of what they looked like.
One Tuskegee Airman, Eugene Smith, was not black at all, but a mixture of European
and American Indian ancestry. The doctor that delivered him wrote “colored” on his
birth certificate. Because of that label, Smith could fly for the Army Air Forces only if
he went to Tuskegee, and so he did.62
46
9. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT ALL TUSKEGEE AIRMEN WERE FIGHTER PILOTS WHO FLEW RED-TAILED P-51S TO ESCORT BOMBERS Museum displays, World War II history books, magazine articles, pamphlets,
newspaper articles, television programs, and even movies sometimes describe only one
part of the Tuskegee Airmen story, misleading readers or observers into thinking that all
the Tuskegee Airmen flew red-tailed P-51s on bomber escort missions deep into enemy
territory. The Tuskegee Airmen story is much more complex than that. In fact, the
Tuskegee Airmen flew four kinds of fighter aircraft in combat, and also bombers not in
combat. Many of the Tuskegee Airmen who flew in combat during World War II and
earned distinguished records never saw a red-tailed P-51. A good example is Charles
Dryden, who returned from Italy months before any of the Tuskegee Airmen flew any P-
51s overseas, and months before they received the assignment to escort heavy bombers
deep into enemy territory.63
To be sure, the most famous Tuskegee Airmen flew red-tailed P-51 Mustangs to
escort Fifteenth Air Force heavy bombers on raids deep into enemy territory, but not all
of them did so. Before July 1944, the 99th Fighter Squadron flew P-40 fighters on patrol
and air-to-ground attack missions against enemy targets on tactical missions for the
Twelfth Air Force. Sometimes these missions involved escorting medium bombers, but
more often they involved supporting Allied surface forces and defending them from
attack by enemy aircraft in Italy. During June 1944, the 332d Fighter Group flew P-47
aircraft on bomber escort missions. Before then, the group and its three fighter squadrons
flew P-39 aircraft on tactical missions for the Twelfth Air Force, supporting Allied
ground forces in Italy. Neither the P-39s nor the P-40s had red tails. Only in July 1944
was the 99th Fighter Squadron assigned to the 332d Fighter Group, and only in that month
47
did the group begin to fly red-tailed P-51s. The group painted the tails of the aircraft red
because the Fifteenth Air Force had seven fighter escort groups, including three P-38 and
four P-51 groups. All four of the P-51 groups had distinctively-painted tails. The 31st
Fighter Group had red-striped tails; the 52nd Fighter Group had yellow tails; the 325th
Fighter Group had black and yellow checkerboard-patterned tails. The tails of the 332d
Fighter Group were painted solid red.64 The assigned colors for each group helped
distinguish it from other groups in large formations flying to, from, and over enemy
targets. The various colored tails also helped bomber crews tell which groups were
escorting them, and whether distant fighters were friend or foe.
Some of the African-American pilots who trained at Tuskegee Army Air Field
during World War II never became fighter pilots at all. They became bomber pilots, and
were assigned after their Tuskegee training to the 477th Bombardment Group, which flew
twin-engined B-25s. That group never deployed overseas to take part in combat during
the war.65
10. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT AFTER A FLIGHT WITH A BLACK PILOT AT TUSKEGEE, ELEANOR ROOSEVELT PERSUADED THE PRESIDENT TO ESTABLISH A BLACK FLYING UNIT IN THE ARMY AIR CORPS Contrary to a persistent misconception, Eleanor Roosevelt’s visit to Tuskegee
Institute at the end of March 1941 did not result in her convincing her husband, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt, to establish a black flying unit in the Army Air Corps.66
In fact, the decision to establish a black flying unit in the Army Air Corps had
been announced by the War Department on January 16, 1941, more than two months
before Eleanor Roosevelt’s visit to Tuskegee. The announcement included mention of
plans to train support personnel for the unit at Chanute Field, Illinois, followed by pilot
48
training at Tuskegee. On March 19, 1941, the War Department constituted the first black
flying unit, the 99th Pursuit Squadron, and on March 22, the unit was activated at Chanute
Field.67 A week after the 99th Pursuit Squadron was activated, Eleanor Roosevelt visited
Tuskegee, and was given an airplane ride over Tuskegee. The date was March 29,
1941.68 The pilot was Charles Anderson, chief instructor who taught civilian pilot
training at Tuskegee Institute. The President’s wife visited Tuskegee, not to get a black
flying squadron started, but because the black flying squadron had been started, and was
scheduled to move from Chanute to Tuskegee after its support personnel had been
trained.
Eleanor Roosevelt undoubtedly supported the efforts to establish black flying
training at Tuskegee, and her visit to Tuskegee Institute encouraged contributions for the
building of a primary flying base at Tuskegee (which later became Moton Field), but she
did not convince her husband the President to establish the first black flying unit after her
flight with Chief Anderson at Tuskegee, because the 99th Pursuit Squadron had already
been announced in January, and constituted and activated before her Tuskegee visit.
Another aspect of the popular story about Eleanor Roosevelt riding with a black
pilot at Tuskegee includes the notion that the Secret Service agents protecting her
objected to her taking the flight with a black pilot, because they were concerned about her
safety, and that they called Washington, D.C. to see if it was okay with President
Franklin D. Roosevelt. The President is said to have responded that they should let
Eleanor do what she wanted. That part of the story is also questionable. Lewis Gould, in
his book American First Ladies, Their Lives and their Legacy, noted that Eleanor
Roosevelt “adamantly refused Secret Service protection” throughout the years her
49
husband was President. If that is true, she would not have had Secret Service agents there
at Tuskegee to object to her flying with a black pilot.69
11. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN EARNED 150 DISTINGUISHED FLYING CROSSES DURING WORLD WAR II For many years the Tuskegee Airmen were said to have earned 150 Distinguished
Flying Crosses during World War II. According to Dr. Roscoe Brown, an original
Tuskegee Airmen who earned his own Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), 150 is the
usual number one hears or reads for DFCs that were earned by Tuskegee Airmen. He
said the number was based on the book, The Tuskegee Airmen: The Men Who Changed a
Nation, by Charles Francis. Francis noted that there was evidence for 95 DFCs awarded
to Tuskegee Airmen, but possibly there were as many as 150.70
Craig Huntly of the Tuskegee Airmen Incorporated’s Harry A. Sheppard
historical research committee checked all the Fifteenth Air Force general orders that
awarded DFCs to Tuskegee Airmen, and found 95 had been awarded. He knew that the
Tuskegee Airmen units in combat had also served with the Twelfth Air Force, before
joining the Fifteenth Air Force, and that Twelfth Air Force general orders would also
probably note additional DFCs awarded to Tuskegee Airmen. However, Huntly found
only one Twelfth Air Force general order that awarded a DFC to a Tuskegee Airman. It
recognized the aerial victory credit of Charles B. Hall, the first black pilot in military
service to shoot down an enemy airplane. He found no other Twelfth Air Force orders
that awarded DFCs to Tuskegee Airmen. Tuskegee Airmen who earned other aerial
victory credits, while flying with the Twelfth Air Force, earned Air Medals instead of
DFCs. The total number of DFCs awarded to Tuskegee Airmen was therefore 96: 95 of
which were awarded by Fifteenth Air Force orders, and 1 awarded by a Twelfth Air
50
Force order. Moreover, one Tuskegee Airman, Captain William A. Campbell, earned
two DFCs. Therefore, 95 Tuskegee Airmen earned DFCs, but 96 DFCs were awarded to
Tuskegee Airmen.
I searched through every one of the orders that Huntly listed, and found the dates
of the events for which each of the Tuskegee Airmen DFCs were awarded. I placed the
events in chronological order so that I could include them in my larger Tuskegee Airmen
Chronology. The correct number of DFCs earned by the Tuskegee Airmen, for which
there is documentation, is 96, not 150. The table below shows the numbers of all the
Fifteenth and Twelfth Air Force general orders that awarded DFCs to Tuskegee Airmen.
TABLE XII: CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF TUSKEGEE AIRMEN DISTINGUISHED FLYING CROSS WINNERS, BY DATE OF THE ACTION FOR WHICH EACH DFC WAS AWARDED. DATE NAME FIGHTER
SQUADRON OF 332D FIGHTER GROUP
GENERAL ORDER NUMBER AND DATE OF ISSUE (all issued by Fifteenth Air Force except first one)
28 Jan 1944 Capt. Charles B. Hall 99 64, 22 May 1944 (12 AF) 12 May 1944 Capt. Howard L. Baugh 99 4041, 19 Oct 1944 21 May 1944 1 Lt. Charles W. Tate 99 449, 31 Jan 1945 27 May 1944 1 Lt. Clarence W. Dart 99 449, 31 Jan 1945 4 June 1944 Capt. Edward L. Toppins 99 4041, 19 Oct 1944 4 June 1944 Capt. Leonard M. Jackson 99 4876, 5 Dec 1944 5 June 1944 Capt. Elwood T. Driver 99 449, 31 Jan 1945 9 June 1944 Col. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. (332 Fighter
Gp) 2972, 31 Aug 1944
12 July 1944 Capt. Joseph D. Elsberry 301 2466, 10 Aug 1944 16 July 1944 Capt. Alphonza W. Davis (332 Fighter
Gp) 3541, 22 Sep 1944
16 July 1944 1 Lt. William W. Green 302 49, 3 Jan 1945 17 July 1944 1 Lt. Luther H. Smith 302 5068, 18 Dec 1944 17 July 1944 1 Lt. Laurence D. Wilkins 302 49, 3 Jan 1945 18 July 1944 2 Lt. Clarence D. Lester 100 3167, 6 Sep 1944 18 July 1944 1 Lt. Jack D. Holsclaw 100 3167, 6 Sep 1944 18 July 1944 Capt. Andrew D. Turner 100 4009, 17 Oct 1944 18 July 1944 1 Lt. Walter J. A. Palmer 100 654, 13 Feb 1945
51
18 July 1944 1 Lt. Charles P. Bailey 99 3484, 29 May 1945 20 July 1944 Capt. Henry B. Perry 99 4993, 14 Dec 1944 25 July 1944 Capt. Harold E. Sawyer 301 4876, 5 Dec 1944 27 July 1944 1 Lt. Edward C. Gleed (332 Fighter
Gp) 3106, 4 Sep 1944
12 August 1944 Capt. Lee Rayford 301 5068, 18 Dec 1944 12 August 1944 Capt. Woodrow W. Crockett 100 49, 3 Jan 1945 12 August 1944 Capt. William T. Mattison 100 49, 3 Jan 1945 12 August 1944 1 Lt. Freddie E. Hutchins 302 49, 3 Jan 1945 12 August 1944 1 Lt. Lawrence B. Jefferson 301 49, 3 Jan 1945 12 August 1944 1 Lt. Lowell C. Steward 100 231, 15 Jan 1945 14 August 1944 Capt. Melvin T. Jackson 302 3689, 29 Sep 1944 14 August 1944 1 Lt. Gwynne W. Pierson 302 287, 19 Jan 1945 14 August 1944 Capt. Arnold W. Cisco 301 839, 21 Feb 1945 14 August 1944 Capt. Alton F. Ballard 301 1153, 5 Mar 1945 24 August 1944 1 Lt. John F. Briggs 100 49, 3 Jan 1945 24 August 1944 1 Lt. William H. Thomas 302 449, 31 Jan 1945 27 August 1944 Capt. Wendell O. Pruitt 302 3950, 15 Oct 1944 27 August 1944 Capt. Dudley M. Watson 302 4009, 17 Oct 1944 27 August 1944 1 Lt. Roger Romine 302 5068, 18 Dec 1944 30 August 1944 Capt. Clarence H. Bradford 301 1811, 27 Mar 1945 8 September 1944 Maj. George S. Roberts (332 Fighter
Gp) 137, 8 Jan 1945
8 September 1944 1 Lt. Heber C. Houston 99 3484, 29 May 1945 4 October 1944 1 Lt. Samuel L. Curtis 100 158, 10 Jan 1945 4 October 1944 1 Lt. Dempsey Morgan 100 231, 15 Jan 1945 4 October 1944 Capt. Claude B. Govan 301 255, 16 Jan 1945 4 October 1944 1 Lt. Herman A. Lawson 99 449, 31 Jan 1945 4 October 1944 1 Lt. Willard L. Woods 100 449, 31 Jan 1945 6 October 1944 1 Lt. Alva N. Temple 99 231, 15 Jan 1945 6 October 1944 Capt. Lawrence E. Dickson 100 287, 19 Jan 1945 6 October 1944 1 Lt Edward M. Thomas 99 517, 6 Feb 1945 6 October 1944 1 Lt. Robert L. Martin 100 839, 21 Feb 1945 6 October 1944 Capt. Robert J. Friend 301 1811, 27 Mar 1945 11 October 1944 Capt. William A. Campbell 99 4215, 28 Oct 1944 11 October 1944 1 Lt. George E. Gray 99 4425, 10 Nov 1944 11 October 1944 1 Lt. Felix J. Kirkpatrick 302 4876, 5 Dec 1944 11 October 1944 1 Lt. Richard S. Harder 99 836, 21 Feb 1945 12 October 1944 1 Lt. Lee Archer 302 4876, 5 Dec 1944 12 October 1944 Capt. Milton R. Brooks 302 255, 16 Jan 1945 12 October 1944 1 Lt. Frank E. Roberts 100 287, 19 Jan 1945 12 October 1944 1 Lt. Spurgeon N. Ellington 100 449, 31 Jan 1945 12 October 1944 1 Lt. Leonard F. Turner 301 836, 21 Feb 1945 12 October 1944 Capt. Armour G. McDaniel 301 1430, 15 Mar 1945 12 October 1944 Capt. Stanley L. Harris 301 1811, 27 Mar 1945
52
12 October 1944 1 Lt. Marion R. Rodgers 99 1811, 27 Mar 1945 12 October 1944 1 Lt. Quitman C. Walker 99 3484, 29 May 1945 13 October 1944 1 Lt. Milton S. Hays 99 719, 16 Feb 1945 14 October 1944 1 Lt. George M. Rhodes, Jr. 100 49, 3 Jan 1945 21 October 1944 Capt. Vernon V. Haywood 302 5068, 18 Dec 1944 16 November 1944
Capt. Luke J. Weathers 302 5228, 28 Dec 1944
19 November 1944
Capt. Albert H. Manning 99 4876, 5 Dec 1944
19 November 1944
Capt. John Daniels 99 5068, 18 Dec 1944
19 November 1944
1 Lt. William N. Alsbrook 99 836, 21 Feb 1945
19 November 1944
1 Lt. Norman W. Scales 100 836, 21 Feb 1945
16 February 1945 Capt. Emile G. Clifton 99 3484, 29 May 1945 17 February 1945 Capt. Louis G. Purnell 301 2362, 14 Apr 1945 25 February 1945 1 Lt. Roscoe C. Brown 100 1430, 15 Mar 1945 25 February 1945 1 Lt. Reid E. Thompson 100 2270, 11 Apr 1945 12 March 1945 Capt. Walter M. Downs 301 3484, 29 May 1945 14 March 1945 1 Lt. Shelby F. Westbrook 99 2362, 14 Apr 1945 14 March 1945 1 Lt. Hannibal M. Cox 99 3031, 5 May 1945 14 March 1945 2 Lt. Vincent I. Mitchell 99 3031, 5 May 1945 14 March 1945 1 Lt. Thomas P. Braswell 99 3484, 29 May 1945 14 March 1945 2 Lt. John W. Davis 99 3484, 29 May 1945 16 March 1945 1 Lt Roland W. Moody 301 2834, 28 Apr 1945 16 March 1945 1 Lt. Henry R. Peoples 301 2834, 28 Apr 1945 16 March 1945 1 Lt. William S. Price III 301 2834, 28 Apr 1945 24 March 1945 1 Lt. Earl R. Lane 100 2834, 28 Apr 1945 24 March 1945 2 Lt. Charles V. Brantley 100 2834, 28 Apr 1945 31 March 1945 1 Lt. Robert W. Williams 100 3484, 29 May 1945 31 March 1945 1 Lt. Bertram W. Wilson Jr. 100 3484, 29 May 1945 1 April 1945 1 Lt. Charles L. White 301 2834, 28 Apr 1945 1 April 1945 1 Lt. John E. Edwards 301 3484, 29 May 1945 1 April 1945 1 Lt. Harry T. Stewart Jr. 301 3484, 29 May 1945 1 April 1945 2 Lt. Carl E. Carey 301 3484, 29 May 1945 15 April 1945 Capt. Gordon M. Rapier 301 3324, 21 May 1945 15 April 1945 1 Lt. Gentry E. Barnes 99 3484, 29 May 1945 15 April 1945 Capt. William A. Campbell 99 3484, 29 May 1945 15 April 1945 1 Lt. Jimmy Lanham 301 3484, 29 May 1945 26 April 1945 1 Lt. Thomas W. Jefferson 301 3343, 22 May 1945 12. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN WERE THE FIRST TO IMPLEMENT A “STICK WITH THE BOMBERS” POLICY
53
In the RED TAILS movie by George Lucas, released in January 2012, the
Tuskegee Airmen appear to be the first fighter group to implement a “stick with the
bombers” policy of fighter escort. All of the other fighter groups appear to be chasing
after enemy fighters, leaving the bombers unprotected from other enemy fighters. That is
not true. The “stick with the bombers” policy had been instituted by Major General Ira
Eaker when he was commander of the Eighth Air Force in England, long before the
Tuskegee Airmen ever began heavy bomber escort. In January 1944, Eaker moved to the
Mediterranean Theater of Operations, where the Tuskegee Airmen were to fly, and took
his “stick with the bombers” ideas with him for the Fifteenth Air Force, over which he
served as commander of the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces. At the same time,
Lieutenant General Jimmy Doolittle moved to England to take command of the Eighth
Air Force. When he entered the office of the commander of the VIII Fighter Command,
which managed the fighter escorts of the Eighth Air Force, he saw a sign that said, “The
First Duty of the Eighth Air Force Fighters is to bring the bombers back alive.” Doolittle
ordered that the sign be taken down and declared that the first duty of the fighters is to
destroy German fighters.71
When the Tuskegee Airmen followed a “stick with the bombers” escort policy,
they were not implementing a brand new policy, but following the old policy of General
Eaker. The fighter escorts of the Fifteenth Air Force, under the Mediterranean Allied Air
Forces, refused to be lured away from the bombers they were protecting by enemy decoy
fighters. That would have left the bombers more vulnerable to the other enemy fighters.
The policy of going after the German fighters, instead of sticking with the bombers, was
Doolittle’s policy after he moved to England to take command of the Eighth Air Force
54
early in 1944, but not the policy of the Fifteenth Air Force after General Eaker took
command of the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces, under which the Fifteenth Air Force
served.
13. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT THE 332ND FIGHTER GROUP WAS THE ONLY ONE TO ESCORT FIFTEENTH AIR FORCE BOMBERS OVER BERLIN The RED TAILS movie by George Lucas depicts the Berlin mission as if only
two fighter groups were assigned to protect the Fifteenth Air Force bombers: the 52nd and
the 332nd. In the movie, the 52nd Fighter Group fails to show up, so the 332nd Fighter
Group stays with the bombers all the way to the target, being the only fighter group to
protect the bombers on that mission. Tuskegee Airman Lee Archer, in a 2001 interview,
claimed that “the other group was supposed to relieve us got lost and didn’t show up and
our group decided that they would stay with the bombers.”72 In reality, the Fifteenth Air
Force bombers that raided Berlin that day were protected by no less than five fighter
groups, including not only the 52nd and 332nd, but also three other groups. Four of the
fighter groups flew P-51s, and one flew P-38s. All of the five fighter groups flew all the
way to Berlin to protect the bombers that day. In fact, whereas the 332nd Fighter Group
shot down 3 enemy jets that attacked the bombers near Berlin that day, the 31st Fighter
Group shot down 5 in the same air battle.73
14. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT THE 99TH FIGHTER SQUADRON, UNLIKE THE WHITE FIGHTER SQUADRONS WITH WHICH IT SERVED, AT FIRST FLEW OBSOLETE P-40 AIRPLANES The Lucasfilm movie about the Tuskegee Airmen called RED TAILS suggests
that the Tuskegee Airmen, when flying their P-40s, were flying obsolete hand-me-down
airplanes that the white units no longer flew. The 99th Fighter Squadron was the
Tuskegee Airmen unit that flew P-40s in combat. When the 99th Fighter Squadron
55
entered combat from bases first in north Africa, and later Sicily and still later on the
mainland of Italy in 1943, it was flying the same kinds of aircraft as the P-40 groups to
which it was attached in turn, and the same kinds of aircraft as the P-40 squadrons that
were assigned to those same groups. If the P-40 was an obsolete aircraft, then groups to
which it was attached, and the fighter squadrons assigned to those groups with which the
99th Fighter Squadron flew, were also flying obsolete aircraft. In other words, if the P-
40s were obsolete, many more white pilots were flying obsolete aircraft than black pilots.
Most of the time the 99th Fighter Squadron was flying P-40s while attached to
white P-40 groups, each of which had three other P-40 squadrons assigned, all the
squadrons were flying the same kinds of missions. Those missions included attacking the
enemy-held island of Pantelleria in the Mediterranean Sea, which surrendered without an
invasion, and covering the Allied invasion of Sicily, to which the 99th Fighter Squadron
moved with the group to which it was attached. In fact, both the group and the 99th
Fighter Squadron earned a Distinguished Unit Citation for the missions against enemy-
held Sicily. A Tuskegee Airman shot down an enemy aircraft exactly one month after the
99th Fighter Squadron flew its first combat mission. In truth, except for about a month in
1943, the 99th Fighter Squadron was not only flying the same kinds of aircraft, but also
the same kinds of missions in the same areas, on the front lines facing the enemy.74
There is one exception. When the 33rd Fighter Group and its three assigned P-40
squadrons moved from Sicily to the mainland of Italy on 13-14 September 1943, the 99th
Fighter Squadron, also flying P-40s, remained back at Sicily, and stayed there until more
than a month later, when it also moved to the mainland of Italy. During that month, the
99th Fighter Squadron was stationed far behind the squadrons assigned to the group, and
56
therefore had much less opportunity to shoot down enemy aircraft. On October 16,
1943, the 99th Fighter Squadron was detached from the 33rd Fighter Group and attached
instead to the 79th Fighter Group. The next day, October 17, the 99th finally moved to the
mainland of Italy.75
The 99th Fighter Squadron earned two Distinguished Unit Citations before it was
assigned to the 332nd Fighter Group. If one reads the orders that awarded those honors,
he or she would find no reference at all to the 99th Fighter Squadron. The honors were
awarded to the 324th Fighter Group, for operations over Sicily in June and July 1943, and
for operations over Cassino on 12-14 May 1944. The only reason the 99th Fighter
Squadron also received the two Distinguished Unit Citations is because the 99th Fighter
Squadron was attached to the 324th Fighter Group in June and July 1943 and again in
May 1944. The 99th Fighter Squadron was flying the same aircraft (P-40s) on the same
missions as the 324th Fighter Group. It was not flying an inferior aircraft, and most of the
time, except between mid-September and mid-October 1943, it was not flying many
miles away from the enemy, without the opportunity to excel in combat.76
At least two sources note that the 99th Fighter Squadron was flying better P-40s
than the other P-40 squadrons in North Africa in 1943. Major Philip Cochran was a
white officer in the 33rd Fighter Group’s 58th Fighter Squadron, who was ordered by
General Cannon to help train the pilots of the 99th Fighter Squadron in combat tactics and
navigation. Cochran noted in an interview that the 99th Fighter Squadron had better
equipment than the other squadrons, implying that the squadron was equipped with better
P-40s.77 Gail Buckley, in her book American Patriots, about blacks in the military, also
noted that the 99th Fighter Squadron had newer P-40s than the other squadrons in North
57
Africa.78 The idea that the 99th Fighter Squadron was flying planes more obsolete than
the white fighter pilots had is only a myth.
Another aspect of the obsolete P-40 myth includes the notion that the P-40s the
Tuskegee Airmen flew at first in combat were reconstructed from those actual P-40s that
the Flying Tigers under Claire Chennault had flown in the China-Burma-India Theater.
This version of the story claims that pieces of those aircraft were put together for the
black pilots to use in North Africa, as if the remnants of those planes were the only P-40s
the Army Air Forces had left. That is an absurd notion.79
15. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT THE TRAINING OF BLACK PILOTS FOR COMBAT WAS AN EXPERIMENT DESIGNED TO FAIL Many publications about the Tuskegee Airmen claim that the program of training
black pilots in the Army Air Forces was an experiment designed to fail, as if the Army
Air Forces planned from the start to “wash out” all the pilot trainees before they had a
chance to graduate, or that it planned from the start never to allow them to enter combat.
The documentation from World War II does not support the claim, although there were
many within the service, including some of the leading officers, who resisted the policy
of granting black pilots the same opportunities as white ones.
The World War II primary sources about the training of the black pilots at Moton
Field and later at Tuskegee Army Air Field, and even at Selfridge Field, indicate that at
least the local Army Air Forces officers by and large intended for the program to succeed.
Studies by Robert “Jeff” Jakeman and J. Todd Moye prove that many Army Air Forces
white personnel in the flying training program for black pilots, with a few exceptions,
worked for the success of the black pilots. The foremost Army Air Forces officer in
charge of the black pilot training was Colonel Noel Parrish. As commander of Tuskegee
58
Army Air Field, where the pilots received their basic and advanced flying training, and
where many of them also received their transition training, he had a vested interest in the
success of the program. Many other white Army Air Forces officers took part in the
training of black pilots, not only at Moton Field but also at Tuskegee Army Air Field.
Among them were Major William T. Smith and Captain Robert M. Long. Forrest
Shelton was a white pilot who taught black pilots to fly both in civilian pilot training at
Kennedy Field and in primary training at Moton Field. President Franklin D. Roosevelt,
the commander in chief, had mandated the first black flying unit as early as 1940, and the
War Department established and activated that unit in March 1941, even before any black
pilots had been trained within the Army Air Forces. President Roosevelt, and the Army
Air Forces officers at Moton and Tuskegee Army Air Fields, did not intend the program
to fail.80
Even after the 99th Fighter Squadron deployed to North Africa to enter combat in
the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, there were white officers who helped the
squadron succeed. While the 33rd Fighter Group commander, Col. William W. Momyer,
attempted to remove the 99th Fighter Squadron from combat, or at least to remove it from
attachment to his group, in 1943, not all white officers of the 33rd Fighter Group were
opponents of the 99th Fighter Squadron. One of them was Major Philip Cochran, who
was ordered by General John Cannon to help the newly arrived pilots of the 99th Fighter
Squadron by training them in combat tactics and navigation, which Cochran did
willingly.81 Cochran was commander of the 33rd Fighter Group’s 58th Fighter Squadron.
When the 99th Fighter Squadron was subsequently attached to the white 79th Fighter
Group, commander, Col. Earl E. Bates, welcomed the black squadron to his group and
59
encouraged its success in combat, treating that squadron like the other three squadrons
assigned to his group.82
16. THE MISCONCEPTION OF THE HIDDEN TROPHY A popular story claims that when the Air Force held its first gunnery “Top Gun”
meet in Las Vegas in 1949, the all-black 332nd Fighter Group defeated all the other
groups, but because a black group won, the competition was discontinued and the trophy
was hidden. Some sixty years later, the trophy was finally discovered, and the 332nd
Fighter Group was recognized for this unique achievement.83
In reality, the Air Force’s 1949 gunnery meet in Las Vegas was not called “Top
Gun,” and the 332nd Fighter Group was not the only fighter group to win. The 332nd won
the conventional (propeller-driven) aircraft category, while the 4th Fighter Group won the
jet aircraft category. In 1950, the Air Force held another gunnery meet in Las Vegas, but
by then, the all-black 332nd Fighter Group had been inactivated. Two other
organizations, the 3525th Aircraft Gunnery Squadron and the 27th Fighter Escort Group,
won the 1950 gunnery meet, the first for the jet aircraft category, and the second for the
conventional (propeller-driven) aircraft category. The trophy for the 1949 and 1950
gunnery meets included an engraved plate that named the four organizations that won the
two meets in the two categories.84
The story that the trophy was deliberately hidden by racists to cover up the
achievement of the black pilots does not ring true. For one thing, the 332nd Fighter Group
was only one of four organizations listed on the trophy, and three of them were white.
Hiding the trophy would not only obscure black heroes, but white ones as well. Another
factor to consider is that when the trophy was awarded for the last time, no institution
60
called the Air Force Museum existed yet. In 1956, the Air Force Technical Museum at
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base was renamed the Air Force Museum, which was open to
the public, but the trophy was not yet a part of the museum’s collection, but belonged to
the Smithsonian Institution, which could not display all of the thousands of artifacts in its
inventory. In 1971, the Air Force Museum moved to its current site, but was still only a
fraction of what it is today. Not until 1975 was the museum constituted as an official
USAF organization rather than simply a named activity. The museum grew
tremendously in size in the decades after 1975, and eventually had more room to exhibit
artifacts. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington,
D.C. transferred some of its United States Air Force artifacts to the Air Force Museum.
Among them was the trophy from the USAF gunnery meets in Las Vegas in 1949 and
1950. Years later, largely through the efforts of Zellie Orr, the trophy for the Air Force’s
gunnery meets in Las Vegas in 1949 and 1950 was put on display as part of an exhibit to
commemorate the achievements of the Tuskegee Airmen, since the 332nd Fighter Group
was its most famous organization, although the 332nd Fighter Group was not the only
group to win the trophy.85
The gunnery meets at Las Vegas were discontinued not because a black group had
won, but because the Korean War broke out in 1950, and the Air Force needed to deploy
its best fighter groups to the Far East to take part in the conflict, which did not end until
1953.
17: THE MISCONCEPTION THAT THE OUTSTANDING WORLD WAR II RECORD OF THE TUSEKGEE AIRMEN ALONE CONVINCED PRESIDENT TRUMAN TO DESEGREGATE THE ARMED FORCES OF THE UNITED STATES.
61
The Tuskegee Airmen’s 332nd Fighter Group completed its combat missions in
Europe, and members of the 477th Bombardment Group took part in the “Freeman Field
Mutiny,” in the spring of 1945, but President Truman did not announce his famous
Executive Order 9981 (EO 9981) until July 26, 1948, more than three years later.
Although the executive order did not mention segregation or desegregation or integration,
President Truman noted that his intent was to end segregation in American military
forces, which would help fulfill the equal opportunity the executive order overtly
promised.
According to a chronology on the website of the Harry S. Truman Library and
Museum, there were several factors that led up to EO 9981. On October 29, 1947, the
President's Committee on Civil Rights issued a report, "To Secure These Rights," which
called for an end to racial segregation in the armed forces of the United States. On March
27, 1948, twenty African-American organizations meeting in New York issued a
"Declaration of Negro Voters," which called for an end to racial segregation in the armed
forces. On April 26, 1948, sixteen African-American leaders told Secretary of Defense
James V. Forrestal that the armed forces of the United States must be desegregated. On
June 26, 1948, A. Philip Randolph announced formation of a "League for Non-Violent
Civil Disobedience Against Military Segregation", and three days later he told President
Truman that unless he issued an executive order ending racial segregation in the armed
forces, African-American youth would resist the draft.86 Most importantly, 1948 was a
presidential election year, and President Truman hoped to appeal to black voters in his
reelection campaign.
62
All of these factors must have influenced Truman's decision, but I believe the
record of the Tuskegee Airmen and the many other black military organizations in World
War II, such as the 92nd Infantry Division in Italy, black troops who volunteered for front
line duty after the Battle of the Bulge, and the black drivers of the “Red Ball Express,”
must have also been a factor, not only in Truman's mind, but also in the minds of those
who urged him to desegregate the military. In recognizing the achievements of black
military personnel in World War II, we should not give all the credit to just one or two of
those organizations. The Tuskegee Airmen were probably the most famous of the black
military organizations in World War II, but they alone were not responsible for the
desegregation of the armed forces of the United States.
I believe the exemplary record of the Tuskegee Airmen’s 332nd Fighter Group
during World War II contributed to President Truman’s decision to desegregate the
United States armed forces, since it proved that black men could fly in combat as well as
white men. I believe the efforts of members of the 477th Bombardment Group to
desegregate facilities at Freeman Field in 1945 also contributed to the end of racial
segregation on military bases, and, ultimately, to the end of racial segregation in the
armed forces. However, there were certainly other factors that contributed to President
Truman’s military desegregation decision, including the role of other black military
organizations during World War II.
Another factor to consider is that the Air Force, as a newly independent service,
was already moving toward racial integration even before Truman’s Executive Order
9981, and that the Air Force actually contributed to the decision. The first Secretary of
the Air Force, Stuart Symington, supported the racial integration of the Air Force from
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the beginning of the Air Force as a military service independent from the Army in 1947,
and he contributed to the drafting of the executive order. Symington was an old friend of
Truman, and they both hailed from Missouri. Colonel Noel Parrish, who had
commanded the flying school at Tuskegee Army Air Field, also supported the racial
integration of the Air Force before the actual integration was implemented in 1949. It
should not be a surprise that the Air Force, of all the military services, was the first one to
implement racial integration, because the ball had been rolling within the Air Force even
before Truman issued his mandate to all the services.87
In a letter dated April 5, 1948 to Lemuel E. Graves of the newspaper, The
Pittsburgh Courier, General Carl Spaatz, Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force,
wrote, “It is the feeling of this Headquarters that the ultimate Air Force objective must be
to eliminate segregation among its personnel by the unrestricted use of Negro personnel
in free competition for any duty within the Air Force for which they may qualify.” On
April 26, Spaatz announced that the Air Force would integrate. His views were
consistent with those of the then Secretary of the Air Force, Stuart Symington.
Supporting the same view was Lt. Gen. Idwal H. Edwards, Air Force Deputy Chief of
Staff for Personnel, who thought that racial segregation of the Air Force degraded its
effectiveness as a service. In the same month, April 1948, Assistant Secretary of the Air
Force Eugene Zuckert testified before the National Defense Conference on Negroes
Affairs that the “Air Force accepts no doctrine of racial superiority or inferiority.” Lt.
Gen. Edwards also testified before the same conference, but was more specific, endorsing
desegregation of the Air Force. The United States Air Force had not integrated before
Truman’s Executive Order 9981, but its leadership had already expressed its desire for
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racial integration. In the back of the minds of all the Air Force leaders who supported the
racial integration of their service, before Truman’s order, there must have been an
awareness of what the only American black pilots in combat in World War II had
achieved just a few years earlier, as members of the Army Air Forces.88
According to Alan Gropman's book THE AIR FORCE INTEGRATES, on page
87, Lt. Gen. Idwal H. Edwards was Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel, and he
thought racial segregation in the Air Force should end, not because the "Negro flying
units" of World War II had been effective, but because they had NOT been effective. As
a member of the McCloy Committee during the war, he was in a position to know.
This is opposite to the general claim that the segregated units had performed so
well, they caused segregation to end. There is some logic to that. If the segregated units
performed better, persons might have argued that segregated units should be maintained.
Col. Noel Parrish, in his Air Command and Staff School thesis in 1947, makes a
similar point. On page 41 he noted that "Each establishment of a 'Negro unit' project was
finally covered with a smoke screen of praise which clouded the issues and obscured the
facts." In other words, praising the all-black units too much did not further the cause of
integration, but segregation instead. Parrish wanted segregated units to end. The fact
that segregation was inefficient proved the need for integration instead.
18. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT 332ND FIGHTER GROUP WAS THE ONLY GROUP TO PAINT THE TAILS OF ITS FIGHTERS A DISTINCTIVE COLOR, TO DISTINGUISH THEM FROM THE FIGHTERS OF THE OTHER FIGHTER ESCORT GROUPS. A popular story about the Tuskegee Airmen is that one day someone in the 332nd
Fighter Group impulsively decided to paint the tails of the group’s escort fighters red so
that others would “know who they were” and so that they would get credit for being the
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best of the fighter escort groups in the combat theater. The story suggests that aircraft of
the other fighter escort groups were not painted in any distinctive color, and that the
Tuskegee Airmen were the only ones to fly fighters with red tails.89
In truth, each of the seven fighter escort groups in the Fifteenth Air Force had its
own assigned color marking scheme. By the middle of July 1944, the 306th Fighter Wing
had four P-51 groups, of which the 332nd Fighter Group was one, and three P-38s groups.
The prescribed aircraft markings involved not only the tail but other parts of the aircraft
as well, but the tails of the P-51s were the most distinctive. The 31st Fighter Group had
striped red-tailed P-51s, while the 52nd Fighter Group had yellow-tailed Mustangs. The
tails of the 325th Fighter Group P-51s were painted a black and yellow checkerboard
pattern, and the 332nd Fighter Group, of course, had solid red tails. A Fifteenth Air Force
document from 1944 shows the markings of the aircraft of each of the seven fighter
groups, and a description of the markings. James T. Sheppard, a Tuskegee Airmen who
maintained P-47 and P-51 aircraft at Ramitelli Air Field in Italy when the 332nd Fighter
Group was flying combat missions from there, remembered that the 332nd Fighter Group
members did not spontaneously determine the red-tailed markings of their aircraft, but
that they were assigned by order of the commander of the Fifteenth Air Force, General
Nathan B. Twining. Having received the color scheme order, the maintenance officer of
each of the four fighter squadrons of the 332nd Fighter Group gathered his crew chiefs
and passed along the prescribed aircraft markings.90
Once each of the fighter escort group aircraft was painted as assigned, each group
could be identified more easily not only by the other fighter groups but also by the
bombardment groups and wings whom they would escort. The colors helped the
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members of the large formations tell friend from foe, and, among friends, which group
was which. This was especially important when there were several different
bombardment groups and fighter escort groups on the same mission.
19. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT ALL BLACK MILITARY PILOT TRAINING DURING WORLD WAR II TOOK PLACE AT TUSKEGEE INSTITUTE.
Many articles about the Tuskegee Airmen imply or insinuate that all the black
pilots in the American military during World War II received their flying training at
Tuskegee Institute.91 In actuality there were three main phases of military flying training:
primary, basic, and advanced. Only the primary phase took place at Tuskegee Institute.
Along with other black institutions of higher learning, Tuskegee Institute operated
a civilian pilot training program. This was accomplished at the institute’s Kennedy Field,
south of downtown Tuskegee. That, however, was to train civilian pilots, who were not
yet members of the Army Air Corps or the Army Air Forces. There were other places all
over the country where black pilots trained, as civilians.
Tuskegee Institute also operated, under contract with the Army Air Forces, a
primary flying training school at Moton Field, another facility owned by Tuskegee
Institute. The primary phase was for military pilots, but the although the cadets were in
the military, many of the instructors were civilians. Military officers supervised the
overall training at Moton Field, and determined which of the pilots would move on to the
basic and advanced phases of military pilot training.
The basic and advanced phases of military pilot training, for the Tuskegee
Airmen, took place not at Tuskegee Institute or any of its facilities, but at Tuskegee Army
Air Field, which was several miles northwest of Moton Field. Tuskegee Army Air Field
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was much larger than Moton Field, and was wholly owned and operated by the Army Air
Forces. The flying school at Tuskegee Army Air Field was not part of Tuskegee
Institute.92
20. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN WERE THE ONLY FIGHTER PILOTS FOLLOWING THE OFFICIAL POLICY OF “STICKING WITH THE BOMBERS.” When Lt. Gen. Ira Eaker commanded the Eighth Air Force in England, his policy
for the fighter escorts of his bombers was to “stick with the bombers.” That policy was
reflected in a sign in the office of the commander of the VIII Fighter Command, Major
General William Kepner. The sign read: “The first duty of the Eighth Air Force fighters
is to bring the bombers back alive.”93 Eaker did not invent the policy that fighter pilots
escorting bombers would stay with the bombers and not leave them unprotected by going
off chasing after enemy fighters. The policy was already defined in Army Air Forces
Field Manual 1-15, “Tactics and Technique of Air Fighting,” published on 10 April
1942.94 It directed fighter escort pilots to “carry out their defensive role.”
The policy apparently applied not only to the Eighth Air Force in England, but
also to the Fifteenth Air Force in Italy. At the beginning of 1944, General Eaker moved
from England to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, and became commander of the
Mediterranean Allied Air Forces, under which the Fifteenth Air Force operated. Col.
Benjamin O. Davis Jr., in his autobiography, mentioned that General Eaker requested the
332nd Fighter Group be given the bomber escort mission and move to join the Fifteenth
Air Force. In the same book, Davis insisted that the mission of his fighters was to “stick
with the bombers” in order to prevent them from being shot down.95 From these sources,
it appears that the policy of “sticking with the bombers” prevailed at the time the 332nd
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Fighter Group assumed and performed its bomber escort missions. One would therefore
assume that if other fighter groups did not “stick with the bombers,” but abandoned them
to chase after enemy aircraft, that those other fighter groups were not following the
policy they were assigned.
There is evidence that by the beginning of 1944, six months before the 332nd
Fighter Group began escorting bombers of the Fifteenth Air Force, that the official policy
had changed. As early as November 1943, General Henry “Hap” Arnold, commander of
the Army Air Forces, sent a memorandum to General George C. Marshall, the Army
Chief of Staff, recommending that his fighters “seek out and destroy the German Air
Force in the air and on the ground” and that “the defensive concept of our fighter
commands and air defense units must be changed to the offensive.”96 In a Christmas
1943 letter, General Arnold, in a similar letter to Major General James H. Doolittle, then
commander of the Fifteenth Air Force in Italy, “my personal message to you – this is a
MUST-is to destroy the enemy air force wherever you find them, in the air, on the
ground, and in the factories.”97 In January, 1944, Doolittle moved to England to take
command of the Eighth Air Force. Meeting with the commander of the VIII Fighter
Command, Maj. Gen. William Kepner, Doolittle told Kepner to take the sign down that
said the first duty of the Eighth Air Force fighters was to bring the bombers back alive,
and replaced it with another sign that said the first duty of the Eighth Air Force was to
destroy enemy aircraft.98
One might imagine that Doolittle changed the fighter escort policy of the Eighth
Air Force in England, and that the old policy of “sticking with the bombers” was
preserved in other theaters, but there is evidence that the policy also changed for the
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Fifteenth Air Force in Italy. Although the Fifteenth Air Force was technically under the
Mediterranean Allied Air Forces, which Eaker commanded, it was also under the
operational control, like the Eighth Air Force, of the U.S. Strategic Air Forces in Europe,
under the command of General Carl Spaatz. Spaatz, who was the superior of both
Doolittle and Eaker, issued an operational directive on January 11, 1944 that directed
attacks on the German Air Force in the air and on the ground. Like his superior, General
Arnold, Spaatz favored that the fighters go after the enemy aircraft. Even if Eaker
desired to preserve the former policy of sticking with the bombers, his superiors directed
that the fighters be turned loose against the German fighters as early as the end of 1943
and January 1944. This new policy was more practical in light of the increasing numbers
and range of the Allied fighter escorts. Some of the fighters could be spared to go after
the enemy aircraft, shooting them down so they could never threaten the bombers again.
The 332nd Fighter Group did not begin escorting heavy bombers of the Fifteenth Air
Force until June 1944, about six months after the policy began to change. Even when
the 332nd Fighter Group did begin escorting heavy bombers, there were times when the
group’s own escort fighters were allowed to go in search of enemy fighters and airfields.
According to Richard Davis, in his biography of General Carl A. Spaatz (Carl A.
Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, published by the Center for Air Force History in
Washington, D.C. in 1993, “Spaatz contributed greatly to the defeat of the Luftwaffe. He
put his whole authority behind the decision to employ aggressive, loose-escort tactics,
which freed the fighters to seek out the enemy but left the bombers more vulnerable.”
As commander of the U.S. Strategic Air Forces in Europe, by the end of February 1944
(at least three months before the 332nd Fighter Group began flying bomber escort
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missions), General Spaatz provided operational control to both the Eighth Air Force in
England under Doolittle, and the Fifteenth Air Force in Italy under Twining.99
In conclusion, if the fighter escort groups of the Fifteenth Air Force, besides the
332nd Fighter Group, sometimes chased after enemy aircraft instead of only “sticking
with the bombers,” it appears that they were following rather than violating policy, and
that the new policy emanated not from them but from the highest officers of the Army
Air Forces. Contrary to a common misconception, the other fighter pilots were not
simply seeking to raise their aerial victory credits total for personal glory, and
abandoning the bombers they were supposed to protect in violation of their assigned
mission.
21. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN’S 332ND FIGHTER GROUP FLEW MORE DIFFERENT KINDS OF AIRCRAFT IN COMBAT THAN ANY OTHER ARMY AIR FORCES GROUP DURING WORLD WAR II. I am not certain of how this misconception originated, but it appeared at the
Enlisted Heritage Hall, a museum at Gunter Annex of Maxwell Air Force Base. A
display plaque claimed that the 332nd Fighter Group, the only Tuskegee Airmen group in
combat, flew more different kinds of aircraft in combat in World War II than any other
group in the Army Air Forces.100
The 332nd Fighter Group flew a total of four different kinds of aircraft during
World War II: P-39s, P-40s, P-47s, and P-51s.101 There were other Army Air Forces
groups that flew four or more aircraft in combat during the war. One of them was the 8th
Fighter Group, that flew P-38s, P-39s, P-40s, and P-47s, according to the lineage and
honors histories of the component squadrons. The 8th Fighter Group also flew P-400s,
but that was another version of the P-39. It appears from this research that the 8th Fighter
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Group, like the 332nd Fighter Group, also flew four different kinds of aircraft in combat
during World War II.102
Research by Barry Spink of the Air Force Historical Research Agency indicates
that the 1st Air Commando Group flew more than four kinds of aircraft during World War
II, and might have flown as many as nine different types: B-25 bombers, P-51 fighters, L-
1 and L-5 liaison airplanes, C-47 transports, CG-4 and TG-5 gliders, UC-64 utility
airplanes, and even helicopters. It appears from preliminary research that it was the 1st
Air Commando Group, not the 332nd Fighter Group of the Tuskegee Airmen, that flew
more different kinds of aircraft in combat than any other Army Air Forces group during
World War II.103
22. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN BELONGED TO SOME OF THE MOST HIGHLY DECORATED UNITS IN U.S. MILITARY HISTORY. In various places, one finds articles that claim the Tuskegee Airmen belonged to
units that were among the most highly decorated in U.S. history. For example, an article
by Jessica York called “Tuskegee Airmen Recall Flying Unfriendly Skies,” published in
the Oroville Mercury Register of California and posted on February 20, 2007 claimed,
about the Tuskegee Airmen, “To their great credit, many units rose far above the
expectations of their often racist commanders- some becoming among the most highly
decorated units in U.S. military history.” A similar claim appears in a 2013 online
advertisement for the book, The Tuskegee Airmen and Beyond, by David G. Styles. It
mentions that the Tuskegee Airmen belonged to one of the most highly decorated of the
Army Air Forces organizations in World War II, at least in their theater.
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The first black flying squadron in the American military was the 99th Fighter
Squadron, but it was far from the most highly decorated of the fighter squadrons in the
Air Force during World War II. The 99th Fighter Squadron earned a service streamer,
twelve campaign streamers, and three Distinguished Unit Citations during the war. The
94th Fighter Squadron earned sixteen campaign streamers and three Distinguished Unit
Citations during World War II. Even in its theater, the 99th Fighter Squadron was not the
most highly decorated. The 309th Fighter Squadron, an example of a non-Tuskegee
Airmen unit that was based in the same theater during World War II, earned a total of
fifteen campaign streamers, two with arrowheads, as well as two Distinguished Unit
Citations. There were other fighter squadrons in the theater, without Tuskegee Airmen
members, that had comparable numbers of honors.104
The Tuskegee Airmen’s 332nd Fighter Group, the only black flying group in
combat during World War II, received 10 campaign streamers and one Distinguished
Unit Citation during World War II. The 1st Fighter Group received 15 campaign
streamers during the war, and three Distinguished Unit Citations. Even in comparison to
other fighter groups in the same numbered air force and the same theater during World
War II, the 332nd Fighter Group was hardly the most decorated. The white 31st Fighter
Group, which also flew in the same combat theater during World War II, received fifteen
campaign streamers and two Distinguished Unit Citations. There were other fighter
groups in the same theater that also earned comparable honors to the 31st.105
If the 99th Fighter Squadron and the 332nd Fighter Group suffered from racial
discrimination by commanders over them during World War II, how could they have
expected to have been among the most highly decorated organizations in the Army Air
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Forces? If they had been among the most highly decorated organizations, the claim of
racism against them, by higher commanders, would be difficult to defend.
Individual pilots also earned awards, such as Distinguished Flying Crosses and
Air Medals, during World War II, but the Tuskegee Airmen did not earn more individual
awards than those who were members of other groups and squadrons in the same theater
during World War II.
The idea that the Tuskegee Airmen were more highly decorated than the pilots of
any other flying unit, even in their theater during World War II, is not supported by the
evidence. The honors of the groups and squadrons show that the Tuskegee Airmen
organizations, in fact, were less highly decorated than some of the other Army Air Forces
flying organizations with which they served during World War II.
23. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN NEVER GOT THE RECOGNITION THEY DESERVED. One often reads or hears that the Tuskegee Airmen never got the recognition they
deserved.106 The claim was true at first, when in the first couple of decades after World
War II, when most of the unit histories remained classified, overall histories of the war
and the role of the Army Air Forces in the war tended to ignore the black units, and not
mention the Tuskegee Airmen at all. But the claim is no longer true, and at times the
332nd Fighter Group and the 99th Fighter Squadron receive more publicity than many of
the other squadrons and groups that served with them in the Twelfth and Fifteenth Air
Forces.
As early as 1955, Charles Francis published a book about the black flying units in
World War II which he called The Tuskegee Airmen: The Men Who Changed a Nation.
In fact, Francis coined the term Tuskegee Airmen. Whoever read the book became aware
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that there were black combat pilots in combat with the American armed forces during
World War II, but the book was not widely known at first.107
A second event that further publicized the role of the black airmen in World War
II was the formation of the Tuskegee Airmen Incorporated. Tuskegee Airmen veterans
began gathering in 1972, and in 1975, they incorporated. In 1978, the leaders of the
organization amended the articles of incorporation to make the Tuskegee Airmen
Incorporated a charitable and education organization. The Tuskegee Airmen
Incorporated has ever since educated the public about the contributions of the Tuskegee
Airmen in World War II.108
A third event made the Tuskegee Airmen famous around the nation and around
the world. In 1995, the HBO cable television station produced and showed a movie
called The Tuskegee Airmen, starring Lawrence Fishburne and Cuba Gooding, Jr. The
movie was very popular, and not long after its showing the term “Tuskegee Airmen”
became a common term. More and more Americans were aware of the black pilots who
served in the Army Air Forces during World War II. In 1998, President Bill Clinton
pinned a fourth star on the uniform of the most famous of the Tuskegee Airmen officers,
General Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., who had already become the first black general in the
United States Air Force. By then, General Daniel “Chappie” James, another Tuskegee
Airman, had become the first black four-star general in any of the armed forces of the
United States.109 By this time, the Tuskegee Airmen were becoming more famous than
many of the white airmen who served in other organizations flying some of the same
kinds of missions in the same theater.
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A fourth event made the Tuskegee Airmen even more famous nationwide. In
March 2007, in an impressive ceremony in the rotunda of the United States Capitol in
Washington, DC, President George W. Bush, on behalf of Congress, awarded the
Congressional Gold Medal to the Tuskegee Airmen. The event was televised nationally.
The Congressional Gold Medal is the highest civilian honor awarded by Congress, and it
was presented to honor the Tuskegee Airmen collectively. Surviving Tuskegee Airmen
from around the nation gathered for the ceremony. President Bush himself saluted the
Tuskegee Airmen for their World War II service, and apologized, on behalf of the United
States, for the mistreatment they suffered in the past.
A fifth event that further publicized the Tuskegee Airmen nationally and around
the world was the 2012 release of a new theatrical movie about them called Red Tails,
which George Lucas produced in 2012. While the movie had mixed reviews, it was
widely popular. George Lucas, who was world famous for his Star Wars and Indiana
Jones movie series, helped spread the fame of the Tuskegee Airmen far and wide, and the
Tuskegee Airmen Incorporated, at their 2012 national convention in Las Vegas,
recognized Lucas in an impressive ceremony.
Besides the Tuskegee Airmen book by Charles Francis, the formation of the
Tuskegee Airmen Incorporated, the release of the HBO movie The Tuskegee Airmen, the
2007 Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony, and the release of the Red Tails movie, the
Tuskegee Airmen became famous in many other ways. They have been honored in
countless other books, magazines and newspaper articles. Their story has also been
celebrated in special museum exhibits, including the National Museum of the United
States Air Force, the National Air and Space Museum, and the National World War II
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Museum. There is a Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site at Tuskegee, run by the
National Park Service of the Department of the Interior. There are even air shows in
which a Red Tail Squadron of the Commemorative Air Force flies a red-tailed P-51. For
all of these reasons, the claim that the Tuskegee Airmen never got the recognition they
deserved is no longer true. People might not have heard about the Tuskegee Airmen for
many years after World War II, but by the turn of the 21st century, they were among the
most famous of the World War II pilots of the Army Air Forces.
24. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT TUSKEGEE AIRMAN CHARLES McGEE FLEW MORE COMBAT MISSIONS THAN ANY OTHER PILOT IN THE AIR FORCE. Sometimes one hears or reads the claim that Tuskegee Airman Colonel Charles
McGee, who flew combat missions as a fighter pilot not only in World War II, but also in
Korea, and Vietnam, compiled a record of more combat missions than any other Air
Force pilot. The claim appeared in an edition of Rising Above, a booklet published by the
Commemorative Air Force’s Red Tail Squadron to celebrate the achievements of the
Tuskegee Airmen. That edition, circulating in 2012, claimed that Col. McGee’s 409
combat missions is the U.S. Air Force record for most combat missions ever flown.110
The source of the claim was not Colonel McGee himself, or the Tuskegee
Airmen. A version of the claim was contained in a 1994 speech by former Chief of Staff
of the Air Force General Ronald Fogleman at the Tuskegee Airmen Incorporated national
convention in Atlanta, Georgia. General Fogleman noted that Colonel McGee had the
distinction of having flown more fighter missions than any other pilot in the three-war
history of the Air Force. General Fogleman’s words are contained in a biography of
Colonel McGee by his daughter, Dr. Charlene McGee Smith. The same source notes that
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Charles McGee flew 409 combat missions. If you read the book carefully, you realize
that the claim of more combat missions than any other Air Force pilot might be a
misinterpretation of General Fogleman’s meaning. He might have meant not that
Colonel McGee compiled more combat missions than any other USAF pilot, but more
than any other USAF fighter pilot who also served in three wars.111
There were several U.S. Air Force pilots who flew more than 409 combat
missions, and therefore more than Colonel McGee. Alophus H. “Pat” Bledsoe, Jr., in an
e-mail to the marketing director of the CAF Red Tail Squadron, noted that he personally
had flown 422 combat missions in Vietnam, and was aware of several other Air Force
pilots who flew more than 500 missions in during the Vietnam War. However, Bledsoe
was a Forward Air Contoller (FAC) and not a fighter pilot, and he referred to other USAF
pilots who were FACs, and not fighter pilots. Colonel Alan Gropman flew 671 missions
in Vietnam, a total much higher than McGee’s 409, but Gropman flew transports, not
fighters.112 If McGee did not fly more combat missions than any other Air Force pilot,
did he fly more combat missions than any other Air Force fighter pilot?
There were other Air Force pilots who flew fighters and who also flew more than
409 combat missions. One of them was Major Kenneth Raymond Hughey, who flew 564
combat missions in Vietnam before he was shot down and became a prisoner of war in
North Vietnam. His number of combat fighter missions is 155 more than the 409 combat
missions of Colonel McGee, but unlike McGee, he did not fly in three wars.113
If Colonel McGee did not fly more combat missions than any other USAF pilot,
and if he did not fly more combat missions than any other USAF fighter pilot, did he fly
more combat missions than any other USAF fighter pilot who flew in 3 wars? That claim
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would also be false. Colonel Ralph S. Parr also flew in three wars, and his total number
of combat missions is 641. He flew 12 missions in P-38s during World War II, 165
missions in F-80s and 37 missions in F-86s during the Korean War, and 427 missions in
F-4s during two tours of duty during the Vietnam War.114
Colonel Charles McGee should be honored for having flown 409 combat missions
as a fighter pilot in the Air Force, and for having flown in three wars, World War II,
Korea, and Vietnam, but the claim that he flew more combat missions than any other
USAF pilot, or more combat missions than any other USAF fighter pilot, or more combat
missions than any other USAF fighter pilot in three wars, is false.
25. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT ALL U.S. BLACK MILITARY PILOTS DURING WORLD WAR II WERE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN IN THE ARMY AIR FORCES. Not all black military pilots who served in the U.S. military during World War II
were Tuskegee Airmen, and not all of them belonged to the Army Air Forces. Before
August 1943, nine black military pilots in the U.S. Army graduated from advanced
liaison pilot training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma instead of at Tuskegee. Six of these had
“washed out” of previous flight training at Tuskegee Army Air Field before transferring
to Fort Sill. In other words, they did not earn their pilot wings at Tuskegee but at Fort
Sill instead. Three other black liaison pilots trained with future white liaison pilots at
Denton, Texas and Pittsburg, Kansas, before they moved on to advanced liaison flight
training and graduation at Fort Sill. Those nine were not technically Tuskegee Airmen
pilots, and not members of the Army Air Forces when they earned their pilot wings,
although they were most definitely among black military pilots who served in the U.S.
military during World War II. However, compared to the total number of black pilots,
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they were very few. There were 992 black military pilots in the U.S. military during
World War II who were Tuskegee Airmen, because they graduated from advanced pilot
training at Tuskegee Army Air Field. Among them were fifty-one liaison pilots.115
26. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT DANIEL “CHAPPIE” JAMES, THE FIRST FOUR-STAR BLACK GENERAL IN THE U.S. MILITARY SERVICES, WAS AMONG THE LEADERS OF THE “FREEMAN FIELD MUTINY” IN APRIL 1945. James R. McGovern wrote a biography of General Daniel “Chappie” James, Jr.
called Black Eagle: General Daniel ‘Chappie’ James, Jr. (Tuscaloosa, AL: The
University of Alabama Press, 1985) in which he repeated a story that James was involved
in the Freeman Field Mutiny as one of its leaders, who refused to sign a document to
acknowledge segregated Officer’s Clubs at Freeman Field, and who was arrested for that
refusal. The book suggests that despite James’ earlier defiance of an order, he rose to the
highest rank in the U.S. Air Force: four-star general.116
Daniel “Chappie” James belonged to the 477th Bombardment Group at Freeman
Field at the time of the “mutiny” there, but he was not one of 61 black officers who were
arrested on April 5 and 6, 1945, for attempting to enter the Officer’s Club reserved for
whites. All but three of those officers were quickly released. James was also not one of
the 101 black officers who were arrested later for refusing to obey an order to sign a
paper acknowledging the two separate Officer’s Clubs at Freeman Field, when they were
given that chance during the period April 9-11, 1945. LeRoy F. Gillead, who was among
those arrested both times, listed all the officers who were arrested in both cases.
Historian Dr. Alan Gropman, who interviewed General James, and historian Guy
Franklin, who studied the issue and found orders listing the arrested officers, confirmed
that James was not one of the arrested officers. Major John D. Murphy, an Air Command
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and Staff College student at Air University, wrote a paper called “The Freeman Field
Mutiny: a Study in Leadership,” in 1997. In two appendixes, Major Murphy listed all the
black officers who were arrested in the Freeman Field Mutiny, and Daniel James was not
on either list. The second appendix, which includes the names of the 101 officers
arrested for refusing to sign a document recognizing the segregated officers clubs policy,
is Freeman Field Special Order 87 dated 12 April 1945. I must conclude that then Lt.
Daniel “Chappie” James either obeyed the order to sign the document acknowledging
segregated Officer’s Clubs at Freeman Field, or he was absent from the base at the time.
He was not one of the leaders of the Freeman Field Mutiny.117
27. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN’S 332ND FIGHTER GROUP FLEW MORE COMBAT MISSIONS THAN ANY OTHER UNIT IN EUROPE DURING WORLD WAR II In the book, American Patriots: The Story of Blacks in the Military from the
Revolution to Desert Storm (New York: Random House, 2001), page 277, Gail Buckley
repeated another misconception regarding the Tuskegee Airmen: “the 332nd flew more
missions than any other unit in Europe.” On page 294, she wrote that “the 332nd Fighter
Group had flown 1,578 combat missions, more than any other unit in Europe.”118 Gail
Buckley is the daughter of Lena Horne, the famous black singer and actress who knew
many of the Tuskegee Airmen.
The 332nd Fighter Group did not fly more combat missions than any other unit in
Europe. The 1,578 combat missions number includes 578 missions the 99th Fighter
Squadron before July 1944, when it moved to the 332nd Fighter Group base and began
flying missions as one of its assigned squadrons.119 Before that the 99th Fighter Squadron
had been attached to other groups. During World War II, the 332nd Fighter Group
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actually flew a total of 914 missions, 602 with the Twelfth Air Force and 312 with the
Fifteenth Air Force.120 The 31st Fighter Group, which also served in Italy during World
War II, flew 930 missions during the war.121 Why did the 31st Fighter Group fly more
missions than the 332nd Fighter Group? The answer is simple. The 31st Fighter Group
entered combat much earlier than the 332nd Fighter Group. The 31st Fighter Group had
more opportunity to accumulate a higher number of combat missions.122
Other fighter groups in Europe flew even more combat missions than the 31st
Fighter Group during the war. An example is the 57th Fighter Group, which flew more
than 1,600 combat missions.123 The 57th Fighter Group had an advantage over the 31st
Fighter Group and the 332nd Fighter Group, because it did not have to escort heavy
bombers. Fighter groups that escorted B-17s and B-24s flew only an average of one or
two missions per day, while fighter groups supporting ground forces could fly several
missions per day. The 332nd Fighter Group flew an average of many more missions per
day before it began escorting heavy bombers in June 1944.
Sometimes one also reads that the Tuskegee Airmen flew more than 15,000
combat missions during World War II, but that is even further from the truth. 124
Whoever claims that figure is looking at combat sorties, which were different from
combat missions. Together, the 99th Fighter Squadron, before it was assigned to the
332nd Fighter Group, and the 332nd Fighter Group, flew a total of more than 15,000
sorties. If 25 fighters of a unit took part in a combat mission, the unit flew 25 sorties on
that one combat mission. A unit flew as many sorties as it flew aircraft on a given
mission. Did the 332nd Fighter Group fly more combat sorties than any other unit in
Europe during World War II? No. Other fighter groups in Europe flew well over 15,000
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combat sorties. For example, the 57th Fighter Group flew more than 38,000 sorties.125
Why the 57th Fighter Group flew many more sorties than the 332nd Fighter Group is very
understandable. The 57th Fighter Group entered combat in October 1942, while the 332nd
Fighter Group entered combat in February 1944. The 57th Fighter Group had a head start
of fifteen months.126
28. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT COL. BENJAMIN O. DAVIS, JR., BY ORDERING HIS PILOTS TO “STICK WITH THE BOMBERS,” PUT HIS PILOTS IN GREATER DANGER THAN THE WHITE PILOTS, AND GAVE THEM LESS OPPORTUNITY TO BECOME ACES A Tuskegee Airman named Le Roy F. Gillead, one of the Tuskegee Airmen who
was arrested for attempting to desegregate a white Officers’ Club at Freeman Field, wrote
a book about the Tuskegee Airmen called The Tuskegee Aviation Experiment and
Tuskegee Airmen 1939-1949: America’s Black Air Force for World War II, published by
the author in 1994. In his book, Gillead criticized Col. Benjamin O. Davis Jr. as if he
had put the black pilots in the 332nd Fighter Group in greater danger and prevented them
from becoming aces by ordering them to “stick with the bombers” they were escorting.
Gillead called such missions “suicide,” and suggested that Davis conspired with white
officers to keep the black pilots “in their place” by ordering such missions.127
How could Gillead have come to those conclusions? Gillead believed Colonel
Davis was a “West Point martinet.”128 He must have imagined that when Colonel Davis
ordered his men to “stick with the bombers” and “not go chasing after enemy airplanes,”
he wanted his pilots to maneuver their aircraft between the escorted bombers and the
enemy aircraft so that the black-occupied fighters rather than the white occupied bombers
would be shot down. He must have thought that close bomber escort did not involve
shooting down enemy airplanes, but merely getting in their way. If that were the case,
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the black pilots would not have had the opportunity to shoot down any enemy airplanes
or become aces for having shot down at least five of them.
The author was not one of the fighter pilots who actually escorted bombers over
Europe during World War II. If he had been, he would have known that the purpose of
the fighter escorts flying with the bombers was not merely to get between the enemy
fighters and the escorted bombers, but to shoot down those enemy aircraft that came
close to the bombers. Yes, Davis did not want his fellow black combat pilots to abandon
the bombers by chasing enemy aircraft that were sent to lure them far away from the
bomber formations, but he certainly did want his pilots to shoot down enemy aircraft if
those aircraft were attacking the bombers they were assigned to escort. That is the only
way the bombers would really be protected. The bombers in fact attracted enemy
fighters, giving the escort fighters a chance to shoot them down. The 332nd Fighter
Group shot down many more aircraft after its assignment to the Fifteenth Air Force for
bomber escort than before. While Davis himself did not shoot down any enemy aircraft,
despite flying many missions with his group, his fellow black pilots shot down a host of
enemy airplanes on their bomber escort missions. The black aerial victories were not
achieved in spite of Davis’ orders, but because of them. The 332nd Fighter Group and its
squadrons shot down a total of 112 enemy airplanes, a great many of them during bomber
escort missions between early June 1944 and the end of April 1945. There were no black
aces, but the reason was less because of Colonel Davis’ bomber escort policy as the fact
that most of the 332nd Fighter Group missions, after July of 1944, encountered no enemy
aircraft.129
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Neither were the bomber escort missions suicidal. In fact, by not chasing enemy
aircraft that no longer threatened the escorted bombers, the pilots would have less chance
to be shot down by the enemy aircraft themselves. The close escort policy protected the
bombers but also the fighters that flew with them. Colonel Davis’ policy gave his black
fighter pilots the opportunity to shoot down enemy aircraft without increasing the danger
they would face. Instead of restricting the opportunity of the Tuskegee Airmen to survive
and gain fame, Davis enhanced it.
29. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT CHARLES ALFRED “CHIEF” ANDERSON TAUGHT HIMSELF HOW TO FLY. Charles Alfred “Chief” Anderson is unquestionably one of the most important
early black pilots. Often called the “father of black aviation,” Anderson was the first
black pilot to earn a commercial transport pilot’s license, in 1932, and one of the most
significant black pilot pioneers because of a 1933 transcontinental flight he made, with
Dr. Albert E. Forsythe, from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to Los Angeles and back. In
1934, he and Forsythe flew through the islands of the Caribbean, and in 1939, he became
a civilian pilot instructor at Howard University. In 1940, he became the chief civilian
pilot instructor at Tuskegee Institute, and eventually became the most important black
flight instructor in the primary phase of flight training for the Tuskegee Airmen cadets at
Moton Field. Anderson had bought his first airplane in 1929 (a Velie Monocoupe), and
with it began to learn how to fly. One of the popular stories about Chief Anderson is that
he was forced to teach himself how to fly, because no white pilot would teach him.130
Chief Anderson did not completely teach himself how to fly. Two white pilots
contributed to his flight training. One of them was Russell Thaw, an experienced pilot to
whom Anderson lent his airplane for trips between Pennsylvania and Atlantic City, New
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Jersey, where Thaw’s mother lived. Anderson accompanied Thaw on many of those
flights, carefully observing him to learn how to fly the aircraft.131 Anderson also received
flight training from Ernst Buehl, a German immigrant who maintained a flight school in
the Philadelphia area, and who had been a transcontinental airmail pilot. Buehl was
instrumental in persuading authorities to allow Anderson to take the test for the
commercial transport pilot’s license because he himself had helped train Anderson how
to fly. To say that Chief Anderson taught himself how to fly discounts the contributions
of Russell Thaw and Ernst Buehl.132
Whether “Chief” Charles Alfred Anderson was the most important flight
instructor of the Tuskegee Airmen is debatable. He served in the primary phase of
Tuskegee Airmen flight training, at Moton Field. However, there were two additional
phases, each as long as the first phase: the basic flying training phase, and the advanced
flying training phase. These two subsequent flying training phases were taught at
Tuskegee Army Air Field, several miles to the northwest of Moton Field, where Chief
Anderson remained. I have found no evidence that Chief Anderson ever moved from
Moton Field to Tuskegee Army Air Field. It is possible that some of the Tuskegee
Airmen might have felt that the most important of their flight instructors was not at
Moton Field, but at Tuskegee Army Air Field, where the second and third phases of their
flying training took place in more advanced aircraft.133
30. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT CONGRESS PASSED A LAW TO CREATE THE FIRST BLACK FLYING UNIT. I attended six consecutive national conventions of the Tuskegee Airmen
Incorporated, and at some of those meetings I heard persons claim that Congress by law
created the first black flying unit. One published source phrased the claim this way:
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“Against the wishes of the War Department, the U.S. Congress, bowing to pressure from
Negro leaders and media, activated the first all-black Fighter Squadron at Tuskegee
Institute, Alabama.”134
I did not find any Congressional Act that created the first all-black flying unit. On
April 3, 1939, Congress passed Public Law 76-18, which some interpreted as requiring
the training of black pilots for the Army. The legislation was not specific, however, and
did not require the War Department or the Air Corps to accept black pilots as members.
The law only required that the Civil Aeronautics Authority designate a school for the
training of black pilots, presumably for future military service.135
On September 16, 1940, Congress passed the Burke-Wadsworth Act, which
forbid racial restrictions on voluntary enlistments in the branches of the Armed Forces,
including, presumably, the Air Corps. However, it did not mandate a black flying unit or
black pilots.136 It only required that blacks be allowed in the Air Corps. In fact, the Air
Corps began planning to add aviation units that would not fly aircraft, but construct
airfields instead.137
More than a month later, on October 24, the War Department asked the Air Corps
to submit a plan for the establishment and training of a black pursuit squadron. In early
December, the Air Corps submitted such a plan, which called for a black flying unit to be
formed, with support personnel to be trained at Chanute Field, Illinois, and with pilots
eventually to be trained at Tuskegee. On January 16, 1941, the War Department
announced that a black flying unit would be formed within the Air Corps. In a letter, the
War Department constituted the first black flying squadron, the 99th Pursuit Squadron, on
March 19, 1941, at Chanute Field, and activated it the same month. Thus it was the War
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Department, and not Congress, that constituted and activated the first black flying unit.138
Of course, without the pressure of the President and Congress and black political
organizations and the black press, the War Department might have never have constituted
and activated the first black flying unit.
A threatened lawsuit by Yancey Williams, a black man who sought to be an Army
pilot, also contributed to the War Department’s reluctant decision to allow black pilots in
the Air Corps, if only in a segregated unit. The National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) maintained a National Legal Committee, led
by Thurgood Marshall, who accepted the case. Around the same time that the Yancey
Williams case was filed, the War Department announced that there would be a black
flying unit in the Air Corps, and therefore a place for black pilots in the U.S. military.139
31. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT BLACK ORGANIZATIONS AND BLACK NEWSPAPERS ALL SUPPORTED THE TRAINING OF BLACK PILOTS AT TUSKEGEE. Very general descriptions of the Tuskegee Airmen in history sometimes focus on
the idea that pressure from black political organizations and black newspapers forced the
War Department to begin training black pilots at Tuskegee, and to create all-black flying
units. One source noted that “Black pressure, supported by a lawsuit by Howard
University student Yancey Williams with the help of the NAACP, finally forced the War
Department on January 9, 1941, to authorize the training of black pilots and form the
Ninety-ninth Pursuit Squadron.”140
Many black leaders, in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP) and in editorial staffs of the leading black newspapers, opposed the
segregated training of black pilots at Tuskegee and the creation of all-black flying units
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because they wanted black pilots trained at the same bases as white pilots, and they
wanted black and white pilots serving together in racially integrated units. Some of them
even called the 99th Fighter Squadron, the first black flying unit, a “Jim Crow air
squadron.” Judge William Hastie, a black leader who served as a special advisor to the
War Department, noted “I can see no reason whatever for setting up a separate program
for Negroes in the Air Corps.” Black leaders eventually reluctantly supported the
Tuskegee Airmen, because having black pilots trained at segregated bases and serving in
segregated units was at least better than having no black pilots at all in the Army Air
Forces.141
32. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT MOST OF THE FLYING INSTRUCTORS OF THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN WERE BLACK. “Chief” Charles Alfred Anderson is the most famous of the black flying
instructors of the Tuskegee Airmen, and his story sometimes leads persons not familiar
with the whole story to conclude that Anderson and his fellow black flight instructors at
Tuskegee were the majority of the flight instructors who trained the Tuskegee Airmen. A
Wikipedia encyclopedia article noted as late as March 18, 2014 that Chief Anderson “was
selected by the Army as Tuskegee’s Ground Commander and Chief Instructor for
aviation cadets of the 99th Pursuit Squadron.”142
Most of the flying instructors of the Tuskegee Airmen cadets at Moton Field,
where the primary phase of flight training took place, were black, but the primary phase
was only the first of three flying training phases, each of equal length. The second and
third phases, basic and advanced flying training, took place at Tuskegee Army Air Field,
several miles to the northwest of Moton Field. During most of World War II, all of the
flight instructors at Tuskegee Army Air Field, for the basic and advanced flying training
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phases, were white. The first black flight training instructors at Tuskegee Army Air Field
did not arrive until the second half of 1944, and most of the flight instructors there
continued to be white well into 1945. There were many more white flying instructors at
Tuskegee Army Air Field, during most of World War II, than there were black flying
training instructors at Moton Field, because each of the basic and advanced flying
training phases had its own set of instructors. For example, by the end of 1944, Tuskegee
Army Air Field had 49 flying instructors in the various flying schools (basic, advanced
single-engine, advanced twin-engine, fighter transition), but only 7 of them were black.
Later in the war, increasing numbers of black pilots who had combat experience overseas
returned to become flight instructors at Tuskegee Army Air Field, but most of the
Tuskegee Airmen who deployed overseas during World War II were trained early in the
war, and their flight instructors in the basic and advanced flying training phases at
Tuskegee Army Air Field were white. As late as the spring of 1945, 20 of the 34 basic
flying training instructors at Tuskegee Army Air Field were white. In reality, most of the
flight instructors at Tuskegee during World War II were white, even though the number
of black flying instructors at Tuskegee Army Air Field was growing during the last year
of the war.143
33. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT MOTON FIELD, LOCATION OF THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE, WAS TUSKEGEE ARMY AIR FIELD, WHERE MOST BLACK FLYING TRAINING TOOK PLACE DURING WORLD WAR II. In a book called America’s Beautiful National Parks, published in Atlanta,
Georgia, by Whitman in 2014, author Aaron J. McKean repeated a common
misconception that Moton Field, where the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site is
today, was the location of Tuskegee Army Air Field.144 Many visitors who come to the
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site, like McKean, think that it was where the bulk of the black flying training occurred
during World War II.
Moton Field was actually the place where only the primary flight training took
place, using biplanes on grass. The two subsequent flight training phases, basic and
advanced, took place at a much larger airfield several miles to the northwest of Moton
Field, with more advanced aircraft types. That was the location of Tuskegee Army Air
Field, with extensive paved runways and a great many more facilities. By the middle of
the war, each of the three flying training phases took approximately nine weeks. Two
thirds of the flying training took place at Tuskegee Army Air Field, not Moton Field.145
The “Black Wings” exhibit in the National Air and Space Museum made a similar
mistake. It displayed a photograph of Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of President Franklin D.
Roosevelt, in an airplane with Charles Alfred “Chief” Anderson, a black flying instructor,
and identified the place as Tuskegee Army Air Field. When the photograph was taken, at
the end of March 1941, Tuskegee Army Air Field had not yet been constructed. The
photograph was actually taken at Kennedy Field, miles away from both Moton Field and
Tuskegee Army Air Field, which were yet to be constructed.146 Kennedy Field was the
place where Tuskegee Institute offered civilian pilot training before military flight
training for blacks began.
34. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN WON THE 1949 USAF GUNNERY MEET IN LAS VEGAS, DEFEATING ALL OTHER FIGHTER GROUPS IN THE AIR FORCE. The fighter groups that took part in the USAF gunnery meet in Las Vegas
competed in two separate categories. In the jet aircraft category, there was a total of
1,000 possible points, 400 for aerial gunnery, and 200 each for ground gunnery, dive
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bombing, and skip bombing. In the reciprocating (propeller) aircraft category, there was
a total of 1,200 possible points, 400 for aerial gunnery, and 200 each for panel gunnery,
dive bombing, skip bombing, and rockets. The 4th Fighter Group won the jet aircraft
category, with 490.180 points out of a possible 1,000 points, for 49 percent of the
possible points. The 332nd Fighter Group won the reciprocating aircraft category, with
536.588 points out of a possible 1,200 points, for 45 percent of the possible points. It
would not be fair to compare the fighter groups on the basis of total points, since the
groups flying in the reciprocal class could earn a possible 200 more points than the
groups flying in the jet class. While the 332nd Fighter Group scored more points total
than any other group, it was competing in a category that allowed 200 extra points
beyond that allowed for the groups in the jet class. If one compares the fighter groups
according to the percentage of points they scored of the possible total, the 4th Fighter
Group actually scored better. To compare the groups of the two different classes,
however, would not be fair, since the categories were different, and the total number of
points allowed was also different. In any case, it would be false to say that the 332nd
Fighter Group won the 1949 USAF gunnery meet, and defeated all the other groups that
competed.147
35. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT TUSKEGEE AIRMAN DANIEL “CHAPPIE” JAMES WAS AN ACE. Sometimes people ask if General Daniel “Chappie” James, the first black four-star
general in the Air Force or in any of the American services, and a Tuskegee Airman who
served during three different wars, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, was an ace. The
short answer is no. An ace is one who received credit for having shot down five enemy
aircraft, and James has no aerial victory credits. While he served during World War II,
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he did not take part in combat during that war. While he served as a fighter pilot in both
the Korean and Vietnam wars, he did not shoot down any enemy aircraft in either of
those conflicts.148
LaVone Kay of the Red Tail Squadron of the Commemorative Air Force, in an e-
mail she sent me on December 18, 2014, mentioned that someone at an airshow
conference that same month had raised the question of whether or not Daniel “Chappie”
James was “the first Tuskegee Airman Ace in Vietnam.” I informed her that there were
no Tuskegee Airmen aces, that General James did not earn any aerial victory credits, and
one would need five in order to be an ace. How did the rumor begin that General James
had been an ace, in Vietnam or anywhere else?
A clue is in the book Scrappy: Memoir of a U.S. Fighter Pilot in Korea and
Vietnam, published by Ian O. C. McFarland in 2007. In that book, the author, Howard C.
“Scrappy” Johnson, mentions on page 119 that “Chappie” James, with whom he had
flown in Korea, told him one day that he was going to be interviewed for a radio show.
Johnson listened to the program because he wanted to hear his friend. He was surprised
that the radio announcer introduced “Chappie” James as a jet ace from the Korean War.
He was disappointed that James did not correct the radio announcer, and let the listeners
believe that he was a jet ace, because Johnson knew that James had no aerial victory
credits in Korea, and normally did not even fly jets there.149 There might have been
other incidents in which James was introduced as an ace, and he did not correct them.
36. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT TUSKEGEE AIRMAN BENJAMIN O. DAVIS, JR. GRADUATED TOP IN HIS CLASS AT THE UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY AT WEST POINT.
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The Red Tail Squadron of the Commemorative Air Force produced a film about
its restoration of a P-51 painted to look like an aircraft flown by the Tuskegee Airmen
when they achieved fame as bomber escort pilots. The Red Tail Squadron has flown the
airplane to remind people about the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II, a commendable
endeavor. However the film version shown in February 2015 contained two myths. It
repeated the “never lost a bomber” claim already refuted in a previous section of this
paper. It also mentioned another myth I had never heard before: that Benjamin O. Davis
Jr., the most famous Tuskegee Airman of all, had graduated top in his class at the United
States Military Academy at West Point. I am not certain where that claim originated.
Davis actually graduated 35th in his class of 276 at West Point, as he noted in his
autobiography.150 In other words, he graduated in the top 13 percent of his class. That is
an outstanding record of achievement, given the discrimination of the times. During his
time at the academy, other cadets shunned and ostracized him, but he persevered to
become the first African American to graduate from West Point in the twentieth century,
and only the fourth to graduate from there in American history.151 Still, since he did not
graduate in the top ten percent of his class, it would be a misleading stretch to say that he
graduated at the “top of his class,” which many would interpret as first in his class.
37. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT THERE WERE “SECOND-GENERATION TUSKEGEE AIRMEN.” Sometimes African American pilots who were not Tuskegee Airmen, but who
were portrayed as following in the footsteps of the Tuskegee Airmen, were erroneously
called “second-generation Tuskegee Airmen.” An example is Colonel Roosevelt Lewis
of Tuskegee, who trained to fly with Charles Alfred “Chief’ Anderson at Tuskegee, who
had also provided civilian and primary military flight training to many if not most of the
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Tuskegee Airmen. Colonel Lewis and Chief Anderson became close personal friends.152
Another was the son of famous Tuskegee Airman Daniel “Chappie” James, who had
become the first black four-star general in the Air Force or in any of the services.
Because he was the son of a Tuskegee Airman, and served like his father as a pilot in the
Air Force, he too was sometimes referred to as a “second-generation Tuskegee Airman.”
The truth is that there were no second-generation Tuskegee Airmen. The
Tuskegee Airmen served in the years from 1941, when the first black flying unit came
into existence, to 1949, when the last all-black flying unit was inactivated, and the
segregated Air Force ended. During those eight years, there were no Tuskegee Airmen
whose sons also became Tuskegee Airmen.
To be sure, there have been a great many black pilots in the Air Force who earned
their wings after 1949 who were inspired by the Tuskegee Airmen, and who perceived
themselves justifiably as following in their footsteps, but because they were not Tuskegee
Airmen themselves and at the same time sons of Tuskegee Airmen, they were not
second-generation Tuskegee Airmen.
38. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT EACH OF THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN WAS AWARDED A CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL, OR THAT THEY WERE EACH AWARDED THE MEDAL OF HONOR. The highest individual honor for a military member is the Medal of Honor, which
is awarded in the name of Congress. For that reason, it is sometimes called the
Congressional Medal of Honor, when in fact it is the Medal of Honor. Sometimes that
award is confused with the Congressional Gold Medal, which Congress sometimes orders
to be created to honor an individual or a group, sometimes military and sometimes not.
Congress awarded the Tuskegee Airmen the Congressional Gold Medal, not each
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Tuskegee Airman a Congressional Gold Medal, or a Medal of Honor, with which it is
sometimes confused.
On April 11, 2006, Congress passed Public Law 109-213, which, according to
section 2, called for “a single gold medal on appropriate design in honor of the Tuskegee
Airmen, collectively, in recognition of their unique military record, which inspired
revolutionary reform in the Armed Forces.” The law also specifies that “the gold medal
shall be given to the Smithsonian Institution, where it will be displayed as appropriate
and made available for research.”153
In March 2007, President George W. Bush presided at an impressive ceremony at
which the Tuskegee Airmen were honored with the completed medal. At that ceremony,
a great many of the Tuskegee Airmen attended. They were given bronze replicas of the
gold medal, but the original gold medal remained in Washington, where it was placed on
display at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum.154
In the years since 2007, persons have sometimes been under the illusion that
Congress had awarded a Congressional Gold Medal, or even the Medal of Honor, to each
of the Tuskegee Airmen, and that if one of them was not at the ceremony at the Capitol to
receive it, he or she deserved to get one, too, possibly in another ceremony.155 For
example, in April 2015, Sgt. Amelia Jones was honored in a ceremony for her service
with the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II. A newspaper article about the event
announced in its headline: “95-year-old Tuskegee Air(wo)man receives Congressional
Gold Medal,” as if Congress in 2015 awarded a Gold Medal to her as an individual.
What she actually received was a bronze replica of the Congressional Gold Medal that
had been awarded collectively to all the Tuskegee Airmen in 2007.156 Another article,
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also published in April 2015, claimed that Tuskegee Airman Lt. Col. Leo Gray earned
“the Congressional Medal of Honor from President George W. Bush in 2006.”157 The
reporter no doubt confused the Congressional Gold Medal which was awarded to the
Tuskegee Airmen collectively in 2007 with the Medal of Honor. In reality, only one
Congressional Gold Medal was produced to honor all the Tuskegee Airmen collectively,
and it was not an individual award such as the Medal of Honor.
There were well over 14,000 Tuskegee Airmen, if one counts not only the pilots
but also the navigators, bombardiers, radio operators, and gunners who trained in the
bombardment squadrons, and all the ground personnel, including administrative,
maintenance, support, training, medical, intelligence, and other personnel in their various
military organizations. Congress did not award a Gold Medal to each of them. Other
military units have also been honored with a Congressional Gold Medal, but individual
members of those units were not each awarded one. Can you imagine the cost of so
much gold?
Bronze replicas of the original Congressional Gold Medal authorized by Congress
to honor the Tuskegee Airmen were also offered in 2007 by the U.S. Mint for purchase
for anyone who wanted one, and not just to Tuskegee Airmen. Many of the replicas have
been purchased and given to individual Tuskegee Airmen who were not able to attend the
2007 ceremony in Washington. Even persons who were not Tuskegee Airmen could
order replicas of the medal, as I did. I gave my bronze Tuskegee Airmen Gold Medal
replica to the National World War II Museum for display at a new exhibit about the
African American Experience in World War II. The Smithsonian Institution, which
currently houses the only original Tuskegee Airmen Congressional Gold Medal at its
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National Air and Space Museum, is planning to move it to the National Museum of
African American History and Culture when that museum, currently under construction
in Washington, D.C., is complete in 2016.158
In 1997, President William “Bill” Clinton awarded the Medal of Honor to seven
African American World War II veterans, six of them posthumously. They were the only
black Medal of Honor winners from World War II. None of those recipients was a
Tuskegee Airman. They were 1st Lt. Vernon Baker, SSgt. Edward A. Carter, Jr., 1st Lt.
John R. Fox, PFC Willy F. James, Jr., SSgt. Ruben Rivers, 1st Lt. Charles L. Thomas, and
Private George Watson. There might have been Tuskegee Airmen who had the same
names (there was a Tuskegee Airman also named George Watson), but the black Medal
of Honor winners from World War II did not belong to the Army Air Forces.159
39. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT WHEN THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN RETURNED TO THE UNITED STATES AFTER COMBAT OVERSEAS, NO ONE WELCOMED THEM. A common misconception about the Tuskegee Airmen is that when they returned
to the United States after having taken part in combat overseas, no one welcomed them,
or expressed appreciation for the combat service they had just performed for their
country. Such a misconception is connected to a common account is that as soon as the
Tuskegee Airmen arrived back in the United States, they were separated from the white
personnel, reminding them that they were returning to a segregated environment and
racial discrimination, despite their heroic service for their country.
Not all of the Tuskegee Airmen who returned from combat overseas were on the
same ship, and not all of them came back at the same time. Some of them returned
during the war, after having completed the requisite number of combat missions. An
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example is Charles Dryden, a 99th Fighter Squadron pilot who returned even before the
332nd Fighter Group deployed. Many others returned during the summer of 1945, after
the war in Europe ended. They were on various ships, along with other returning
servicemen. Not all of them had the same experience when they got back to the United
States.
Lt. Col. Leo Gray, pilot of a red-tailed P-51 who belonged to the 100th Fighter
Squadron of the 332nd Fighter Group, remembered that when his Liberty ship, the Levi
Woodbury, arrived in New York on October 17, 1945, after having crossed the Atlantic
Ocean, to unload combat veterans from World War II such as him, there was a big
welcome. Entertainment had been arranged, and there was a large crowd of well-wishers.
The idea that none of the Tuskegee Airmen was ever welcomed upon returning home,
and shown appreciation for their military service overseas, is false.160
40. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN WERE INSTRUMENTAL IN THE DEFEAT OF GERMAN FORCES IN NORTH AFRICA. On 8 January 2015 Dr. Russell Minton recorded a half-hour YouTube video in
which he claimed to be telling “the real history of the Tuskegee Airmen.” In the
recording, Dr. Minton claimed that the Tuskegee Airmen, more than anyone else,
defeated German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in North Africa by destroying hundreds
of his tanks with P-39 airplanes. He claimed that they were more instrumental in the
Allied victory in North Africa than Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, the Allied
commander. Dr. Minton repeated the same claims in the spring of 2015 at Osceola High
School at Kissimmee, Florida.161 Dr. Minton was not speaking from his personal
experience, because he never deployed overseas or took part with the Tuskegee Airmen
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in combat. I do not believe he made up the claims he repeated, but was passing on
Tuskegee Airmen stories he had heard from others, without checking the unit histories
the Tuskegee Airmen wrote themselves during World War II to see if the stories were
accurate.
The Tuskegee Airmen never fought Rommel or destroyed German tanks in North
Africa. Field Marshal Erwin Rommel fought his last battle in North Africa on 6 March
1943. General Jurgen von Arnim succeeded Rommel in charge of German and Italian
forces in Tunisia, North Africa, on 9 March 1943. General Armin surrendered all his
forces in North Africa to General Montgomery on 12 May 1943. Although the 99th
Fighter Squadron, the only Tuskegee Airmen organization to deploy to North Africa,
arrived in North Africa on 24 April 1943, in Morocco, it did not fly its first combat
mission until 2 June 1943, approximately three weeks after all enemy forces surrendered
in North Africa. Moreover, when the 99th Fighter Squadron began flying combat
missions over North Africa, from liberated Tunisia, it was flying P-40s, not P-39s, and
the missions were to patrol Allied shipping in the Mediterranean, and to ward off enemy
air attacks, not to destroy enemy tanks in North Africa.162
41. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT ALL BLACK PERSONNEL IN THE ARMY AIR FORCES DURING WORLD WAR II WERE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN. Most of the black personnel in the Army Air Forces during World War II were
probably not Tuskegee Airmen. The Tuskegee Airmen included not only the pilots who
trained at Tuskegee, but also all others who served with them, both at training bases and
at other bases in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations overseas, and there were many
more ground personnel who were not pilots than who were. The Tuskegee Airmen did
not include, however, many other black personnel who did not serve at the bases where
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the pilots served. Among the black personnel who belonged to the Army Air Forces, but
who were not Tuskegee Airmen were the members of black aviation squadrons. There
were more than 250 of such squadrons in 1944. The black aviation squadrons were not
flying units, but were labor organizations that served at bases all over the United States.
Blacks also served in other Army Air Forces units, including truck companies, medical
and quartermaster units, and engineer aviation battalions, many of which served overseas
in combat theaters around the world. The personnel of those organizations, although they
were black and belonged to the Army Air Forces, were not Tuskegee Airmen unless they
were also stationed at one of the bases at which the black flying units served.163
42. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT TUSKEGEE AIRMAN LEO GRAY FLEW THE LAST MISSION IN EUROPE DURING WORLD WAR II. In an article by Jeff Jardine published on August 26, 2015, Tuskegee Airman Leo
Gray is quoted as having claimed that he flew the last mission of the war in Europe on
May 7, 1945.164 That was the day the German high command surrendered
unconditionally.165
The claim is questionable for a number of reasons. Leo Gray was flying with the
332nd Fighter Group, which was assigned at the time to the 306th Fighter Wing. All of the
composite mission reports of the 306th Fighter Wing for May 1945, including the one for
May 7, note under the 332nd Fighter Group the words “stand down.” In other words,
according to the documentation, the 332nd Fighter Group flew no missions on that day, or
any other day in May 1945. The 332nd Fighter Group histories and collected mission
reports also do not show any mission flown on May 7, 1945.166
The same May 7, 1945 mission report of the 306th Fighter Wing shows that the
31st Fighter Group, the 52nd Fighter Group, and the 325th Fighter Group, which also flew
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P-51 fighters in the wing, did fly missions that day. According to that report, the last
missions of the wing were flown not by the 332nd Fighter Group, but by one of the other
P-51 fighter groups of the 306th Fighter Wing.167
One may well ask why the three other P-51 groups in the 306th Fighter Wing of
the Fifteenth Air Force have mission sorties listed in early May 1945, but the 332nd
Fighter Group does not. The 332nd Fighter Group history for May 1945 suggests reasons.
One reason could be that during the first week in that month, the 332nd Fighter Group was
moving from Ramitelli Airfield to Cattolica Airdrome, Italy, a fact confirmed in the
group’s lineage and honors history. The headquarters of the group completed its move
to Cattolica around May 4, 1945. The three squadrons assigned to the group at the time,
the 99th, 100th, and 301st, moved on circa May 5, circa May 4, and circa May 4,
respectively (the 302nd Fighter Squadron had been inactivated on March 6). During the
time the group was moving from one base to another, in early May, it would have had
less chance to fly combat missions. It would have had to “stand down.”168
If the group completed its move by May 4 or 5, could not missions have been
flown by squadrons of the group on or after that day? It is a reasonable question. There
is an answer in the group history for May 1945: “an armada of ‘Red Tails’ participated in
the Fifteenth Air Force Review which took place over Caserta and Bari on 6 May
1945.”169 It is possible that Leo Gray flew in the aerial review on May 6 instead of on the
last mission in Europe in World War II on May 7.
According to Kit C. Carter and Robert Mueller, who edited the book The Army
Air Forces in World War II Combat Chronology, 1941-1945 (Albert F. Simpson
Historical Research Center and Office of Air Force History, 1973), the Ninth Air Force
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and the Twelfth Air Force flew missions in Europe on May 8, 1945, the day after the last
missions flown by the 306th Fighter Wing of the Fifteenth Air Force. This source
suggests that not only did Leo Gray of the 332nd Fighter Group not fly the last mission in
Europe during World War II, but neither did any of the other groups of the 306th Fighter
Wing or of the Fifteenth Air Force.170
Leo Gray claimed that the last mission he flew in Europe, on May 7, was over the
Brenner Pass between Italy and Austria, to test whether the Germans had ceased firing
their antiaircraft weapons in the area. I have found no evidence of such a mission on that
day, but I did find, interestingly enough, a report on an 82nd Fighter Group mission over
the Brenner Pass on May 12 or 13, 1945, after V-E Day. In that report is a note that with
the 82nd Fighter Group P-38s was a single P-51, an aircraft type not normally flown by
the 82nd Fighter Group. Is it possible that Gray flew in that P-51 over the Brenner Pass
on May 12 or 13, but reported the wrong date, possibly because by May 12 or 13, the war
was already over? The Fifteenth Air Force mission reports for May 1945 show several
missions flown after V-E Day, which was May 8. Many of those other missions were of
bombers dropping supplies over formerly occupied territory.171
This documentation does not support the claim that Tuskegee Airman Leo Gray
flew the last mission in Europe during World War II.
43. THE MISCONCEPTION THAT ALL BLACK OFFICERS AT FREEMAN FIELD, INDIANA, IN APRIL 1945, REFUSED TO SIGN A NEW BASE REGULATION REQUIRING SEGREGATED OFFICERS CLUBS, AND WERE ARRESTED AS A RESULT. Sometimes one reads or hears the story of the “Freeman Field Mutiny” told as if
all black officers stationed at Freeman Field refused to sign a new base regulation
requiring segregated officers’ clubs, and were arrested as a result.172 The fact is that the
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great majority of black officers at Freeman Field at the time, April 1945, were not
arrested, presumably because they did not refuse to obey an order to sign the new base
regulation.
In April 1945, there were 422 black officers at Freeman Field. Colonel Robert
Selway, commander of the field and of the 477th Bombardment Group stationed there
required all of the officers to sign a new base regulation requiring two segregated officers
clubs, one for trainers and one for trainees. The real purpose was to create separate
officers clubs, one for whites and one for blacks. The number of black officers who
refused to sign the new regulation, and were arrested for disobeying an order to sign it,
was 101. Sixty-one black officers had been arrested earlier for trying to enter the white
officers club at Freeman Field, but 58 of them had been released. Many of those 58 were
among the 101 arrested for refusing to sign the new regulation. In other words, some of
the black officers were arrested twice. The total number of black officers arrested at
Freeman Field in April 1945 because of the segregated officers clubs policy was 120.
That was less than thirty percent of the 422 black officers stationed at the base at the
time. Assuming that all those who disobeyed the order to sign the new base regulation
were arrested, more than seventy percent of the black officers at Freeman Field signed
the new base regulation, although many of them signed with objections.173 The great
majority of black officers at Freeman Field did not take part in the “mutiny.”
CONCLUSION. Whoever dispenses with the misconceptions that have come to
circulate around the Tuskegee Airmen in the many decades since World War II emerges
with a greater appreciation for what they actually accomplished. If they did not
demonstrate that they were far superior to the members of the six non-black fighter escort
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groups of the Fifteenth Air Force with which they served, they certainly demonstrated
that they were not inferior to them, either. Moreover, they began at a line farther back,
overcoming many more obstacles on the way to combat. The Tuskegee Airmen proved
that they were equal to the other fighter pilots with whom they served heroically during
World War II. Their exemplary performance contributed to the fact that of all the
military services, the Air Force was the first to integrate, in 1949.
Daniel L. Haulman, PhD Chief, Organizational Histories Branch Air Force Historical Research Agency
NOTES
1 Noel F. Parrish, “The Segregation of Negroes in the Army Air Forces,” Air Command and Staff College thesis, Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base, May 1947, Air Force Historical Research Agency call number 239.04347, May 1947, Parrish, p. 41. 2 Noel F. Parrish, “The Segregation of Negroes in the Army Air Forces,” Air Command and Staff College thesis, Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base, May 1947, Air Force Historical Research Agency call number 239.04347, May 1947, Parrish, p. 39. 3 Alan L. Gropman, The Air Force Integrates, 1945-1964 (Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1985), p. 2-3. 4 Alan L. Gropman, The Air Force Integrates, 1945-1964 (Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1985), p. 12; Ulysses Lee, The Employment of Negro Troops (Washington, DC: Office of the Chief of Military History, United States Army, 1966), 157. 5 Air Force Historical Research Agency call number 134.65-496. 6 USAF Historical Study No. 85, “USAF Credits for the Destruction of Enemy Aircraft, World War II” (Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1978); Maurer Maurer, Air Force Combat Units of World War II (Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1983). 7 Army Air Forces Statistical Digest for World War II, 1946 (Washington, DC: Statistical Control Division, Office of Air Comptroller, June 1947) p. 256 (Table 160) 8 Daniel L. Haulman, “Tuskegee Airmen-Escorted Bombers Lost to Enemy Aircraft,” paper prepared at the Air Force Historical Research Agency. This paper is based on histories of the 332d Fighter Group, daily mission reports of the Fifteenth Air Force, and Missing Air Crew Reports that show the times, locations, and causes of aircraft losses. 9 Interview of General Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., by Alan Gropman, AFHRA call number K239.0512-122. 10 Fifteenth Air Force General Order 2972 issued on 31 Aug 1944. 11 332d Fighter Group histories, under call number GP-332-HI at the Air Force Historical Research Agency; Fifteenth Air Force daily mission folders, under call number 670.332 at the Air Force Historical Research Agency; Missing Air Crew Reports, indexed and filed on microfiche in the Archives Branch of the Air Force Historical Research Agency. 12 Oliver North, War Stories III (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2005), p. 152. 13 Interview of Lee Archer by Dr. Lisa Bratton, conducted on 13 Mar 2001 in New York, NY, on file at the Air Force Historical Research Agency under call number K239.0512-2580, pp. 23-24. 14 Monthly histories of the 332nd Fighter Group, June 1944-April 1945; Fifteenth Air Force General Order 2350, dated 6 Aug 1944; Fifteenth Air Force General Order 4287 dated 1 Nov 1944.
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15 332nd Fighter Group narrative mission report 37 dated 26 July 1944. 16 Fifteenth Air Force General Order 2350 dated 6 Aug 1944. 17 Charles E. Francis, The Tuskegee Airmen (Boston: Bruce Humpries, Inc., 1955), pp. 92 and 194; 332nd Fighter Group mission report number 30, for 20 July 1944. 18 Interview of Lee Archer, by Dr. Lisa Bratton, conducted on 13 Mar 2001 in New York, NY, on file at the Air Force Historical Research Agency under the call number K239.0512-2580, pp. 23-24; conversations of Daniel Haulman with Frank Olynyk during several fo the latter’s research visits to the Air Force Historical Research Agency. 19 YouTube video recorded by Dr. Russell Minton in January 2015, and posted on the internet; histories of the 99th, 100th, 301st, and 302nd Fighter Squadrons and the 332nd Fighter Group during World War II; Twelfth and Fifteenth Air Force general orders awarded aerial victory credits during World War II, as shown on the table. 20 John J. Kruzel, “President, Congress Honor Tuskegee Airmen,” American Forces Press Service, March 30, 2007. 21 Interview of Lee Archer by Dr. Lisa Bratton, conducted on 13 Mar 2001 in New York, NY, on file at the Air Force Historical Research Agency under call number K239.0512-2580, pp. 19-20. 22 Fifteenth Air Force General Order 2293 dated 12 Apr 1945. 23 USAAF (European Theater) Credits for the Destruction of Enemy Aircraft in Air-to-Air Combat, World War 2, Victory List No. 5, Frank J. Olynyk, May 1987; USAAF (Mediterranean Theater) Credits for the Destruction of Enemy Aircraft in Air-to-Air Combat, World War 2, Victory List No. 6, Frank J. Olynyk, June 1987; USAF Historical Study No. 85, USAF Credits for the Destruction of Enemy Aircraft, World War II, Albert F. Simpson Historical Research Center, 1978; Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II, edited by Maurer Maurer, 1969. Air Force Combat Units of World War II, edited by Maurer Maurer, 1983. This information was compiled by Ms. Patsy Robertson, a historian at the Air Force Historical Research Agency. 24 John B. Holway, Red Tails, Black Wings (Las Cruces, NM: Yucca Tree Press, 1997), p. 262. 25 Fifteenth Air Force General Orders 2525, dated 19 Apr 1945 and 2709 dated 24 Apr 1945. 26 332nd Fighter Group history for June 1944 and 332nd Fighter Group mission report for 25 June 1944. 27 332nd Fighter Group history for June 1944 and 332nd Fighter Group mission report for 25 June 1944; Interview of Lee Archer by Dr. Lisa Bratton, conducted on 13 Mar 2011, in New York, NY, on file at the Air Force Historical Research Agency under call number K239.0512-2580, p. 20. 28 332d Fighter Group history for June 1944; 332d Fighter Group mission report for 25 June 1944; David Brown, Warship Losses of World War II (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1990);; “Fighting Ships of the World,” website of Ivan Gogin (http://www.navypedia.org/ships/germany/ger_tb_ta22.htm); Aldo Fraccaroli, Italian Warships of World War II (London: Ian Allan, 1968). Jurgen Rohwer, Chronology of the War at Sea (London: Chatham Publishing, 2005), p. 338. 29 Charles Francis, The Tuskegee Airmen, edited by Adolph Caso (Boston: Branden Books, 2008), pp. 113-114; Fifteenth Air Force General Order 287 dated 19 Jan 1945; Fifteenth Air Force General Order 3950 dated 15 Oct 1944. 30 Myth contained in Wikipedia under Ariete Class Torpedo Boat; more correct information from H. P. Willmott’s The Last Century of Sea Power, volume 2, From Washington to Tokyo, 1922-1945 (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2010), p. 207. 31 J. Todd Moye, Freedom Flyers: The Tuskegee Airmen of World War II (Oxford University Press, 2010), p. 121; John B. Holway, Red Tails, Black Wings (Las Cruces, NM: Yucca Tree Press, 1997), p. 260. 32 Lawrence P. Scott and William M. Womack, Sr., Double V: The Civil Rights Struggle of the Tuskegee Airmen (East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University Press, 1994), p. 225. The sources were interviews with Omar Blair, Woodrow Crockett, and George Watson. 33 55th Air Service Squadron histories for December 1944-March 1945, AFHRA call number SQ-SV-55-HI Jul 1942-May 1945. 34 E-mail from James Sheppard, an original Tuskegee Airmen, and a member of the Tuskegee Airmen Incororated, with whom the author has spoken and corresponded. 35 John Holway, Red Tails, Black Wings (Las Cruces, New Mexico: Yucca Tree Press, 1997 ), p. 260. 36 YouTube video of Dr. Russell Minton, recorded in January 2015, and posted on the internet (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16-4veOJFC4).
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37 Fifteenth Air Force daily mission reports, June and July 1944. AFHRA call number 670.332. 38 Narrative Mission Reports of the 31st, 52nd, 82nd, 325th, and 332nd Fighter Groups, contained in the Fifteenth Air Force mission folder for 24 March 1945, AFHRA call number 670.332, 24 March 1945. 39 55th Air Service Squadron history for March 1945. The AFHRA call number is SQ-SV-55-HI Jul 1942-May 1945. 40 Zellie Orr, Heroes in War- Heroes at Home (Marietta, GA: Communication Unlimited, 2008), pp. 2-3. 41 Organization record cards of the 96th, 523rd, and 524th Air Service Groups, and organization record card of the 366th Air Service Squadron, on file at the Air Force Historical Research Agency. 42 Intervier of Lee Archer by Dr. Lisa Bratton, in New York, NY, on 13 Mar 2001, on file at the Air Force Historical Research Agency under call number K239.0512-2580, p. 19. 43 Documentation supplied by Craig Huntly, including a 25 March 1945 letter of commendation from Colonel Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. to the commander of the 366th Air Service Squadron, noting Captain O. D. Blair, and a 6 June 1945 letter of commendation from Captain Omar Blair to Staff Sergeant George Watson for his role in obtaining the fuel tanks for the Berlin mission. 44 John Holway, Red Tails and Black Wings (Las Cruces, New Mexico: Yucca Tree Press, 1997), p. 249; Chris Bucholtz, 332nd Fighter Group – Tuskegee Airmen (Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2007), p. 116. 45 World War II statistical abstract; daily mission reports of the Fifteenth Air Force and the 332nd Fighter Group between June 1944 and the end of April 1945; missing air crew reports of bombers shot down in the Fifteenth Air Force organizations in the same time period. 46 Kai Wright, Soldiers of Freedom: An Illustrated History of African Americans in the Armed Forces (New York: Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers, 2002), p. 181. 47 James H. Doolittle and Carroll V. Glines, I Could Never Be So Lucky Again (Atglen, PA: Schiffer Military/Aviation History, 1991), p. 380. 48 History of the Fifteenth Air Force, November 1943-May 1945, vol. I (Air Force Historical Research Agency call number 670.01-1), pp. 277 and 286. 49 History of the 52nd Fighter Group, May 1944, AFHRA call number GP-52-HI, May 1944. 50 History of the Fifteenth Air Force, November 1943-May 1945, vol. I (Air Force Historical Research Agency call number 670.01-1), pp. 286-287. 51 Maurer Maurer, Air Force Combat Units of World War II (Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1983), under each group designation. 52 Fifteenth Air Force mission folder for 29 December 1944; 485th Bombardment Group history for January 1945. 53 Ryan Orr, “Veteran’s Life Saved by Tuskegee Airman,” Victorville Daily Press, November 10, 2008; 332d Fighter Group histories for May, June, and July 1944; 31st Fighter Group history for May 1944; Fifteenth Air Force Daily Mission Folder for May 5, 1955; E. A. Munday, Fifteenth Air Force Combat Markings, 1943-1945 (London, UK: Beaumont Publications), pp. 15-18. 54 Pete Mecca, “Tuskegee Airmen Assured Fellow Pilots a Happy New Year,” The Covington News, January 1, 2014. 55 USAF Historical Study 85, USAF Credits for the Destruction of Enemy Aircraft, World War II (Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1978); Maurer Maurer, Air Force Combat Units of World War II (Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1983); e-mail message from Barrett Tillman regarding Fifteenth Air Force aces. 56 Narrative mission reports of the 332nd Fighter Group, filed with the monthly histories of the 332nd Fighter Group at the Air Force Historical Research Agency, for the period June 1944-April 1945. There are 311 such narrative mission reports filed, but only 179 of these were bomber escort missions. 57 Lineage and honors histories of the 99th Fighter Squadron, the 332rd Fighter Group, and the 477th Bombardment Group, and their monthly histories from World War II, stored at the Air Force Historical Research Agency. 58 History of Tuskegee Army Flying School and AAF 66th FTD, book published by Wings of America and filed at the Air Force Historical Research Agency under call number 289.28-100. 59 Conversations of the author with various original Tuskegee Airmen that took place during his attendance at five successive Tuskegee Airmen Incorporated national conventions, in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011. 60 Alan L. Gropman, The Air Force Integrates (Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History 1985), pp. 12-14 and 17-18.
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61 History of Tuskegee Army Flying School and AAF 66th FTD, book published by Wings of America and filed at the Air Force Historical Research Agency under call number 289.28-100; Robert J. Jakeman, The Divided Skies (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1992), pp. 264-265; Lineage and honors history of the 53rd Test and Evaluation Group (formerly the 79th Fighter Group) at the Air Force Historical Research Agency. 62 Author’s personal conversations with Tuskegee Airmen George Hardy and William Holloman, and with journalist Ron Brewington; articles announcing the death of Eugene Smith as a Tuskegee Airman, November 2012, including WCPO news site, Cincinnati, Ohio, 26 Nov 2012, and Eagle Radio 99.3 FM website, Lawrenceburg, Indiana, 26 Nov 2012; Vevay Newspapers Online, 29 Nov 2012, “Eugene Smith, County Resident and Tuskegee Airman, Passes Away.” 63 Charles W. Dryden, A-Train: Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1997), pp. 144-147. 64 Lineage and honors histories of the 99th Flying Training Squadron (formerly 99th Fighter Squadron) and 332nd Expeditionary Operations Group (formerly 332nd Fighter Group) at the Air Force Historical Research Agency, in addition to their monthly histories from 1943-1945. 65 477th Fighter Group (formerly 477th Bombardment Group) lineage and honors history, and monthly histories of the 477th Bombardment Group in 1944 and 1945, at the Air Force Historical Research Agency. 66 Conversations of the author with several of the original Tuskegee Airmen at a series of fiveTuskegee Airmen Incorporated national conventions between 2007 and 2011. 67 Robert J. Jakeman, The Divided Skies (Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press, 1992, p. 221; Maurer Maurer, Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1969), p. 329. 68 Information from Cheryl Ferguson of Tuskegee University archives, received on December 13, 2011. 69 Lewis Gould, American First Ladies: Their Lives and Their Legacy (Routledge, 2014), p. 294. 70 Information from Dr. Roscoe Brown, telephone conversation with Dr. Daniel Haulman on 13 December 2011. 71 James H. Doolittle and Carol V. Glines, I Could Never Be So Lucky Again (Atglen, PA: Schiffer Military Aviation History, 1991), p. 380. 72 Interview of Lee Archer by Dr. Lisa Bratton, conduced on 13 Mar 2001 in New York, NY, on file at Air Force Historical Research Agency under call number K239.0512-2580, p. 19. 73 Fifteenth Air Force mission folder for March 24, 1945, which includes all the fighter group narrative mission reports for the day, under call number 670.332 at the Air Force Historical Research Agency; Fifteenth Air Force Field Order 159 dated 23 March 1945, for the 24 March 1945 mission to Berlin. The order noted that the XV Fighter Command was to provide five groups for strong escort for the 5th Bombardment Wing (AFHRA call number 670.327, Mar-Apr 1945). The mission reports of the fighter groups confirm that five groups provided escort that day for the 5th Bombardment Wing that flew to Berlin. 74 Maurer Maurer, Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II (Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1969), pp. 329-330. The 99th Fighter Squadron was attached to four different white P-40 groups in the Mediterranean Theater before it joined the 332nd Fighter Group, and flew the same kinds of aircraft they did on the same kinds of missions. 75 Maurer Maurer, Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II (Washington, DC: Department of the Air Force, 1969), pp. 230, 233-235, 329-330; Charles E. Francis, The Tuskegee Airmen: The Men Who Changed a Nation (Wellesley, MA: Branden Books, 2008), p. p. 75. 76 War Department General Order 23 dated 24 March 1944; War Department General Order 76 dated 8 September 1945. 77 Interview of Col. Philip G. Cochran by James Hasdorff, call number K239.0512-876 at the Air Force Historical Research Agency, p. 122. 78 Gail Buckley, American Patriots (New York: Random House, 2001), p. 288. 79 YouTube video of Dr. Russell Minton, recorded in January 2015 and posted on the internet. 80 Robert J. Jakeman, The Divided Skies (Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 1992); J. Todd Moye, Freedom Flyers (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2010); History of Tuskegee Army Flying School, call number 289.28-100 at the Air Force Historical Research Agency). 81 Interview of Col. Philip G. Cochran by James Hasdorff, call number K239.0512-876 at the Air Force Historical Research Agency, p. 124.
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82 Lynn M. Homan and Thomas Reilly, Black Knights: the Story of the Tuskegee Airmen (Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing Company, 2006), p. 105. 83 Corey Bridwell and Paige Osburn, “Tuskegee Airmen’s Legacy Celebrated at Compton’s Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum,” KPCC Radio page on internet, dated 19 Jan 2012;; Robert Roten, “Laramie Movie Scope: Red Tails,” (http://www.lariat.org/AT The Movies/new/redtails.html); Sundiata Cha-Jua, “Red Tails, A Historically Accurate Film?”. 84 Author’s visit to the National Museum of the United States Air Force in early 2012, where he viewed the trophy for the Las Vegas gunnery meets of 1949-1950 and the panel describing the trophy and the competition; copy of the names on the plate of the United States Air Force Gunnery Award, forwarded from Dr. Jeffery S. Underwood of the National Museum of the United States Air Force to Daniel L. Haulman as an attachment to a 7 May 2012 message. 85 National Museum of the United States Air Force Aircraft Catalog, edited by John King, 2011; Organization Record card of the National Museum of the United States Air Force, formerly the Air Force Museum and later the United States Air Force Museum, at the Air Force Historical Research Agency; Message from Dr. Jeffery S. Underwood of the National Museum of the United States Air Force to Daniel L. Haulman, dated 7 May 2012. 86“Desegregation of the Armed Forces,” Harry S. Truman Library and Museum website (http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/desegregation/large/index.php) 87 George Hardy, chairman of the Harry Sheppard historical research committee of the Tuskegee Airmen Incorporated; Alan L. Gropman, The Air Force Integrates (Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1985), pp. 45-46, 55, 87-90. 88 Alan L. Gropman, The Air Force Integrates, 1945-1964 (Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1985), pp. 87-89 and 295; Letter, Spaatz to Graves, 5 Apr 1948, in Special File 35, Negro Affairs, 1948, Secretary of the Air Force, National Archives Record Group 340; John T. Correll, “The Air Force, 1907-2007,” Air Force Magazine (September 2007); George Hardy, Chairman of the Harry A. Sheppard Historical Reseach Committee of the Tuskegee Airmen Incorporated. 89 John B. Holway, Red Tails: An Oral History of the Tuskegee Airmen (Minneola, NY: Dover Publications, 2011), p. 146 90 “Friendly Aircraft Markings,” contained in a folder, “Lead Check List,” among the documents of the Fifteenth Air Force, call number 670.328-1 at the Air Force Historical Research Agency (IRIS number 00247524) and correspondence of Daniel Haulman with Ron Spriggs that included testimony from Mr. James T. Sheppard, who maintained aircraft of the 332nd Fighter Group at Ramitelli Air Field in Italy during World War II. 91 Stanley Sandler, “Tuskegee Airmen,” in Ethnic and Racial Minorities in the U.S. Military: An Encyclopedia edited by Alexander Bielakowski (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2013), vol. II, pp. 691-692. 92 Robert J. Jakeman, The Divided Skies (Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press, 1992), pp. 270-271; J. Todd Moye, Freedom Flyers (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2010), p. 83. 93 James Doolittle, I Could Never Be So Lucky Again (Atglen, PA: Schiffer Military/Avaition History, 1995), p. 380. 94 AAF Field Manual 1-15, Tactics and Techniques of Air Fighting, 10 Apr 1942. 95 Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., American (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991), pp. 118 and 122-123. 96 Letter, Gen. Henry “Hap” Arnold to Gen. George C. Marshall, 3 Nov 1943. 97 Letter, Gen. Henry “Hap” Arnold to Maj. Gen. James H. Doolittle, 25 Dec 1943. 98 Doolittle, I Could Never Be So Lucky Again, p. 380. 99 Richard G. Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe (Washington, DC: Center for Air Force History, 1993), pp. 319 and 394. 100 Daniel Haulman visit to Enlisted Heritage Hall, Gunter Annex, Maxwell Air Force Base, June 8, 2013. 101 Lineage and honors histories of the 332nd Fighter Group and its four squadrons, the 99th, 100th, 301st, 302nd Fighter Squadrons, on file at the Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell Air Force Base. 102 Lineage and honors histories of the 8th Fighter Group and its four fighter squadrons during World War II (35th, 36th, and 80th), contained in Maurer Maurer, Air Force Combat Units of World War II (Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1983) and Maurer Maurer, Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II (Washington, DC: USAF Historical Division, Air University, 1969).
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103 Lineage and Honors history of the 1st Air Commando Group, contained in Maurer Maurer, Air Force Combat Units of World War II (Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1983), p. 19, and research by Barry Spink of the Air Force Historical Research Agency. 104 Maurer Maurer, Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II (Washington, DC: USAF Historical Division, Air University, Department of the Air Force, 1969), pp. 314-316, 329-330 and 372-374. 105 Maurer Maurer, Air Force Combat Units of World War II (Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1983), pp. 21-24, 83-85 and 212-213. 106 Victor Barbosa, “Roscoe Brown: a True American Hero,” in The Springfield Student, Online independent news for Springfield College, published on February 14, 2013 by Springfield College Student Media. 107 Charles E. Francis, The Tuskegee Airmen: The Men Who Changed a Nation (Boston: Branden Books, 2008), originally copyrighted in 1955 by Charles E. Francis. 108 Tuskegee Airmen Incorporated Membership Directory, July 2010, p. 1. 109 Joseph Caver, Jerome Ennels, and Daniel Haulman, The Tuskegee Airmen: An Illustrated History, 1939-1949 (Montgomery, AL: New South Books, 2011), pp. 141-150. 110 E-mail from LaVone Kay, Marketing Director, CAF Red Tail Squadron, with the Rise Above Traveling Exhibit, to Daniel Haulman in response to a question from Adolphus H. Bledsoe, Jr. 111Charlene Smith, Tuskegee Airman: The Biography of Charles E. McGee, Air Force Fighter Combat Record Holder (Boston: Branden Publishing Company, 1999), p. 174. 112 Telephone call, voice message, Alan Gropman to Daniel Haulman, 29 July 2013. 113 “The Volunteer States Goes to War: A Salute to Tennessee Veterans,” electronic pamphlet issued by the Tennessee State Library and Archives. 114 John L. Frisbee, “The Pinnacle of Professionalism,” Air Force Magazine (February 1987), p. 109; “Ralph S. Parr, Fighter Pilot,” Daedalus Flyer, vol. XXXVI, no. 2 (Summer 1996), pp. 15-21; e-mail, Barrett Tillman to Daniel Haulman, 22 July 2013. 115 Dr. John W. Kitchens, “They Also Flew: Pioneer Black Army Aviators,” published in two consecutive issues of U.S. Army Aviation Digest (Sep/Oct and Nov/Dec 1994). 116 James R. McGovern, Black Eagle: General Daniel ‘Chappie’ James, Jr. (Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press, 1985, pp. 45-46. 117 LeRoy F. Gillead, The Tuskegee Aviation Experiment and Tuskegee Airmen, 1939-1949 (published by the author in 1994); E-mails from Alan Gropman to Daniel Haulman dated July 29, 2013 and December 3, 2013; E-mails from Mr. Guy Franklin to Daniel Haulman dated December 3, 2013; Major John D. Murphy, “The Freeman Field Mutiny: A Study in Leadership,” research paper written for Air Command and Staff College of Air University in March 1997 . 118 Gail Buckley, American Patriots: The Story of Blacks in the Military from the Revolution to Desert Storm (New York: Random House, 2001), pp. 277 and 294. 119 Histories of the 99th Fighter Squadron at the Air Force Historical Research Agency. 120 Histories of the 332nd Fighter Group, and daily narrative mission reports of the group, from January 1944 through April 1945, at the Air Force Historical Research Agency. 121 31st Fighter Group history for April 1945, at Air Force Historical Research Agency. 122 Lineage and honors histories of the 31st and 332nd Fighter Groups. 123 Histories of the 57th Fighter Group and the 64th and 66th Fighter Squadrons. 124 Remarks by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer on Arizona Senate Bill 1128, September 26, 2013. 125 57th Fighter Group history. 126 Maurer Maurer, Air Force Combat Units of World War II (Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1983), pp. 120 and 212. 127 Le Roy Guillead, The Tuskegee Aviation Experiment and Tuskegee Airmen, 1939-1949 (San Francisco, CA: Balm-Bomb in Gillead, 1994), pp. 67, 69, and 71. 128 Le Roy Gillead, The Tuskegee Aviation Experiment and Tuskegee Airmen, 1939-1949 (San Francisco, CA: Balm-Bomb in Gillead, 1994), p. 71. 129 Narrative mission reports of the 332nd Fighter Group between early June 1944 and the end of April 1945, contained in monthly histories of the group, prepared by the 332nd Fighter Group during the war. 130 Victoria Wolk, “Member of Tuskegee Airmen Visits North Penn School District for Black History Month,” Montgomery News, February 25, 2014; John Holway, Red Tails: An Oral History of the Tuskegee Airmen (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2011), p. 11; Lawrence P. Scott and William M. Womack, Jr.,
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Double V: The Civil Rights Struggle of the Tuskegee Airmen (East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University Press, 1992), p. 41; Robert J. Jakeman, The Divided Skies (Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press, 1992), p. 8. 131 Cheryl Allison, “Many Calling on U.S. Postal Service to Honor Bryn Mawr Native, Tuskegee Airman C. Alfred ‘Chief’ Anderson in Stamp,” Mainline Media News, Feb. 3, 2014 (http://www.mainlinemedianews.com);; Pope Brock, “Chief Anderson,” People Magazine (28 November 1998);; C. Alfred Anderson Legacy Foundation website article, “Father of Black Aviation,” (http://chief anderson.com). 132 J. Todd Moye, Freedom Flyers: The Tuskegee Airmen of World War II (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2010), p. 45; Von Hardesty, Black Wings: Courageous Stories of African Americans in Aviation and Space History (New York: HarperCollins, 2008), p. 52; Samuel L. Broadnax, Blue Skies, Black Wings: African American Pioneers of Aviation (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2007, p. 19; Cheryl Allison, “Many Calling on U.S. Postal Service to Honor Bryn Mawr Native, Tuskegee Airman C. Alfred ‘Chief’ Anderson in Stamp,” Mainline Media News, Feb. 3, 2014 (http://www.mainlinemedianews.com) . 133 Tuskegee Army Air Field history, March-April 1945, vol. 1, call number 289.28-9 at the Air Force Historical Research Agency. 134Charlene E. McGee Smith, Tuskegee Airman: The Biography of Charles E. McGee (Boston, MA: Branden Publishing Company, 1999), p. 28. 135 Robert J. Jakeman, The Divided Skies (Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press, 1992), pp. 98, 102-103. 136 Robert J. Jakeman, The Divided Skies (Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press, 1992), p. 183. 137 LeRoy Gillead, The Tuskegee Aviation Experiment and Tuskegee Airmen, 1939-1949 (San Francisco, CA: Balm-Bomb in Gillead, 1994), p. 22-23. 138 Robert J. Jakeman, The Divided Skies (Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press, 1992), pp. 187, 197, 206, 211, 221, 228, 240); War Department Adjutant General letter 320.2 (Feb 18, 1941) dated March 19, 1941 (effective March 19, 1941). 139 Charles W. Dryden, A Train: Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman (Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press, 1997), pp. 110-111; J. Todd Moye, Freedom Flyers (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2010), pp. 37-38. 140Lt. Col. Michael Lee Lanning, The African-American Soldier (New York: Citadel Press, 2004), p. 191. 141 J. Todd Moye, Freedom Flyers (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2010), pp. 31-32; Robert J. Jakeman, The Divided Skies (Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press, 1992), pp. 188-189, 201-202. 142 Wikipedia article on C. Alfred “Chief” Anderson, accessed on March 18, 2014;; Newspaper articles published in March 2014 regarding the announcement of a new U.S. Postal Service stamp often made it appear that Charles “Chief” Anderson was the most important of all the flight instructors at Tuskegee, when in reality he was involved in only the first of the three flying training phases. 143 Histories of Tuskegee Army Air Field, call number 289.28-9 and 289.28-10 at the Air Force Historical Research Agency. 144 Aaron J. McKean, America’s Beautiful National Parks (Atlanta, GA: Whitman Publishing, 2014), p. 120. 145 Histories of Tuskegee Army Air Field, 2143rd Army Air Forces Base Unit, during 1941-1946, call number 289.28 at the Air Force Historical Research Agency. 146 Robert J. Jakeman, The Divided Skies (Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press, 1992), p. 245. 147 Score sheets from the 1949 USAF gunnery meet at Las Vegas, NV, voucher no. 40, furnished by 99 ABW historian Gerald A. White, Jr. 148 USAF Historical Study 81, USAF Credits for the Destruction of Enemy Aircraft, Korean War (Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1975; Aces and Aerial Victories: The United States Air force in Southeast Asia, 1965-1973 (Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1976). 149 Howard C. “Scrappy” Johnson, Scrappy: Memoir of a U.S. Fighter Pilot in Korea and Vietnam (Ian A. O. C. McFarland, 2007), p. 119. 150 Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., American (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991), p. 48; National Aviation Hall of Fame Website, under Benjamin O. Davis, Jr.
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151Alexander M. Bielakowski, editor, Ethnic and Racial Minorities in the U.S. Military; An Encyclopedia, vol. I, entry on Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. by Rae M. Bielakowski (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2013), p. 148. 152 The author attended some ceremonies in Tuskegee in which he heard Col. Roosevelt Lewis called a “second-generation Tuskegee Airman. 153 Public Law 109-213, 109th Congress, April 11, 2006, section 2. 154The author watched the Tuskegee Airmen gold medal ceremony that was broadcast on national television, 29 March 2007. He also saw the original gold medal on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., in 2014. He also ordered a replica of the medal, which he donated to the National World War II Museum. 155 One example is John McCaskill, who attempted to honor a Tuskegee Airman who had missed the gold medal ceremony in Washington, D.C. in March 2007, and who he thought deserved to receive a Congressional Gold Medal, too. 156 SSgt. Richard Wrigley, “95-year-old Tuskegee Air(wo)man Receives Congressional Gold Medal,” Army News Service, 21 Apr 2015. 157 Charles M. Murphy, “Tuskegee Airman, Lt. Col. Leo Gray, Speaks at Okeechobee Correctional,” Okeechobee News, 23 Apr 2015. 158 The author saw a sign with the Tuskegee Airmen Congressional Gold Medal, at the National Air and Space Museum, which noted that it was now the property of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. 159 S. H. Kelly, “Seven World War II Veterans to Receive Medals of Honor,” Army News Service, 1997. 160 Conversation between Lt Col Leo Gray and Daniel Haulman, by telephone, 30 March 2015. 161 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16-4veOJFC4 and E-mail from Ron Albers to Daniel Haulman, referring to a meeting at Osceola High School in Kissimmee, Florida in the spring of 2015. The e-mail was sent on 20 May 2015. 162 Histories of the 99th Fighter Squadron at the Air Force Historical Research Agency; Robert Goralski, World War II Almanac, 1931-1945 (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1981), pp. 260, 265-266. 163 Alan L. Gropman, The Air Force Integrates, 1945-1964 (Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1985), p. 8. 164 Jeff Jardine, “Tuskegee Airmen Pilot, 91, Wants Record Set Straight,” The Modesto Bee, August 26, 2015. 165 Robert Goralski, World War II Almanac, 1931-1945 (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1981), p. 404. 166 306 Fighter Wing Composite Mission Reports for May 1945. The May 7, 1945 report is numbered 176. These documents are stored at the Air Force Historical Research Agency under call number WG-306-HI, May 1945. The IRIS reference number is 00109052. The 332nd Fighter Group history for May 1945 is consistent. Its call number is GP-332-HI, May 1945. 167 306 Fighter Wing Composite Mission Report number 176, as of 2000 hours, 7 May 1945. 168 Lineage and honors history of the 332nd Fighter Group (later 332nd Air Expeditionary Group); May 1945 history of the 332nd Fighter Group; Maurer Maurer, Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1969), pp. 329, 332, and 365. 169 332nd Fighter Group history, May 1945, at Air Force Historical Research Agency. 170 Kit C. Carter and Robert Mueller, editors, The Army Air Forces in World War II Combat Chronology, 1941-1945 (Albert F. Simpson Historical Research Center and Office of Air Force History, 1973), p. 647. 171 Fifteenth Air Force Mission Reports for May 1945, filed under Air Force Historical Research Agency call number 670.332 and the date. 172 An example is the account of the incident in Gail Buckley’s American Patriots: The Story of Blacks in the Military from the Revolution to Desert Storm (New York: Random House, 2001). 173 Lt. Col. James C. Warren, The Tuskegee Airmen Mutiny at Freeman Field (Vacaville, CA: Conyers Publishing Company, 1995). Warren was one of those arrested, and he lists the others who were arrested with him.